Bobcats Looking To Top Off District Crown In Playoffs

FRUITVALE — Lee LaPrade had his Fruitvale baseball team in the weight room Wednesday afternoon. Before each set of reps began, the coach bellowed out one word:

"District!"

The room-wide reply came just as loud: "Champions!"

"That’s the first time we’ve said anything about it," LaPrade said after the workout session.

It is indicative that although this baseball team is proud of its most recent accomplishment, it is not intended to be the last of the season.

The Bobcats put together an impressive turnaround in the second half of the regular season to take the District 19A crown, sweeping all four district games played.

Now, Fruitvale (10-5) will await the outcome of a Class A bi-district game next week between Saltillo and Maud to see who it will face in the area round.

LaPrade, the former Grand Saline baseball standout in his first year as Fruitvale coach, cannot say enough about his team’s performance to this point.

"It’s been an amazing season, but I’ve got to hand the credit to the kids," LaPrade said. "The first day out (for practice), I told them I would expect a lot of hard work out of them.

"That work is probably 90 percent of the reason for our success…I couldn’t ask a group of kids to work harder than they have," LaPrade said.

The midseason reversal of fortune can be seen best in the team’s batting average.

"We’re hitting .344 as a team right now and through the first seven games, it was at .186," the coach said.

"At the beginning of the season, our sticks weren’t working for us," Shawn LaPrade, one of two seniors on the squad, said. "We kept working on it and now they are, and we haven’t slowed down at the plate since then."

But ask anybody on the team what the biggest key has been and he will tell you it is in the field. Coach LaPrade harped heavily on "making the routine play" defensively and the Bobcats carry a .937 fielding percentage into the playoffs as a result.

"We’ve put that on the back of our playoff shirts," he said, praising the players for each one’s willingness to correct his throwing style. "We’re going to do the fundamental stuff right."

Along with his son, Coach LaPrade mentioned senior Blaine Lunsford, freshman Caleb Westbrook, first baseman Hunter Houser and catcher Austin Congleton as players who have stepped into on-field leadership roles this season.

Shawn LaPrade agrees the chemistry has been great.

"We’ve really come together this year. Congleton has been great behind the plate," he said. "All of our infielders are solid, not much gets by them.

"Our outfielders also really hustle after the ball, and not much gets by them, either," Shawn added.

Work in the weight room has paid off in recent games as the Bobcats have had power hitting that was totally absent last year. Congleton, Lunsford and Houser each homered in a win over Yantis, and Ian McCann launched a home run in the regular season finale against Martins Mill.

"It’s amazing how these players have learned from their own actions," Coach LaPrade said. "They have a willingness to learn the game and they treat the game with respect."

The game, as it has turned out, has repaid Fruitvale in kind.