Sports

The Wimberley Texans hosted their first home tournament of the season in the new ballpark and managed to finish with a respectable 2-2 record.

The Texans started out the tournament with a strong 9-2 win over Llano, a team that beat them a week ago.

“We’ve started hitting the ball a bit better and putting it play,” Head Coach Dane Saucier said. “We were able to get guys in scoring position and put a few crooked numbers on the board.”

On the mound was Blake Latz threw a complete game and only gave up one run.

“He had a good performance,” Saucier said. “He threw a lot of strikes and was inducing groundballs. He did a good job on the mound for us.”

Tanner Mathews and JD Anderson lead the team with two RBI each. Gavin Gonzales and Justin Gray each had three hits.

The Wimberley Texan baseball team is off to a hot start winning three of the first four games.

“It’s a senior oriented team,” Head Coach Dane Saucier said. “We’ve got a lot of guys back and so our expectations are pretty high for this bunch. They’ve got to come together as a team better… I think if they do that, they’ve got a chance to be pretty decent.”

The team started off the season with a  3-2 win over Burnet before heading to a tournament in Llano. After some of the early games this season were canceled due to weather, the Texans were itching to take the field.

Llano jumped out to an early lead, but the Texans hung close as the ball game was 2-1 late. Then the final inning rolled around and Wimberley gave up four more runs.

Seth Storm was on the mound to help the Texans rebound against Wall. 

Two recent games for the Wimberley Lady Texan soccer team had very different outcomes.  Wimberley struggled on the road against a much improved Fredericksburg team and dropped the game 3-0, then the team rebounded and defeated Canyon Lake in their next outing by a score of 2-1.  Although Wimberley defeated district foe Fredericksburg a few weeks earlier, the second contest against the Lady Billies proved much more difficult.  The Lady Texans struggled in all phases of the game and were limited to just two shots on goal for the game.  The Lady Billies, on the other hand, had a strong offensive showing for the entire 80 minutes of play.  

The Texan soccer team is starting to find it stride as the season begins to take shape. Wimberley faced off against Fredericksburg, the district lead which has not lost a game in district play, last week. While they fell 2-1, the game still showed the team is progressing.

“We played them very even,” Head Coach Jacob Thielman said. “It’s unfortunate that we ended up losing, because we really played well.”

The Texans gave up one goal in the first half before tying the game early in the second on a goal from Jovanne Bernal.

“It was a counter attack,” Thielman said describing the goal. “We came out of our own end and were able to get behind their defense. Jovanne was able to get in a one-on-one match up with their goal keeper and he was able to score.”

The Texan basketball team won its first playoff game since 2009 before falling to a top 10 ranked team in the state in the second round of the playoffs.

Wimberley beat Burnet 61-59 last Tuesday in a matchup that came down to the last shot.

After trailing by one point at halftime, Will Simpson stood at the line with the game tied with about a minute left in the ball game. He sank two free throws to give the Texans the lead. After a defensive stop and two missed free throws, the Texans needed a defensive stand with four seconds left.

Burnet managed to get the ball into the corner for a potential game winning three. The ball caught the rim and rattled around before slipping out.

The Lady Texans got their first playoff victory in years after beating the Taylor Ducks 65-53 on Tuesday night. 

“For this group of girls, this is our first playoff win, and that is huge in itself,” Head Coach Ted Dydalewicz said. “It’s a confidence booster. It’s going to help give us some momentum, also, as we move in the playoffs.”

The Lady Texans may have gained some momentum, but they already had plenty. After losing the first two games of the district season, in the process of losing four in a row, Wimberley managed to win the next 10 games on the way to a second place finish in District 26 4A.

That doesn’t mean Tuesday night’s game was a breeze. 

The Lady Texans trailed by one point at half time, 27-26.

After starting district play in an 0-2 hole, the Wimberley Texan basketball team has rattled off nine straight wins. They are looking for a 10th to close out the season on a hot streak.

“That was our goal after losing the first two in district,” Head Coach Jeff McDorman said. “It gives us momentum and a good frame of mind. It would be a great accomplishment to win the last 10 in district, and then tie for the championship. It gives us a lot of momentum going into the playoffs.”

The Texans are tied with La Vernia for the district lead. Both teams play Tuesday night, after the Wimberley View’s time of press, to assure a co-district championship. If tied, the teams will flip a coin for seeding in the playoffs. 

Wimberley “won the week,” as McDorman says, by beating Yoakum and Gonzales in back to back games. 

It may not have been a must-win game, but the Lady Texans were faced with beating a quality opponent to keep their win streak – and momentum – going while heading toward the playoffs.

“This was not only for playoff seeding, but it was for pride,” Head Coach Doug Dydalewicz said. 

The Lady Texans were facing the La Vernia Bears, who are fighting for a playoff spot themselves. The 63-51 victory on Tuesday last week clinched a playoff stop for Wimberley.

“It was one of those games where we came out strong in the first half,” Dydalewicz said. “We turned it on in the third quarter to seal it.”

The Texan soccer team has had a rough start to district play falling in three straight games, but they are far from down and out.

In the newly created district, this is the first year the state of Texas has offered districts for schools of Wimberley’s size, the Texans will play each district foe three times.

“We have a lot of time to make some things happen,” Head Coach Jacob Thielman said. “We have several seniors who can play, and once we get everyone out there at once, we’ll be better.”

Last Tuesday, the Texans had a “frustrating” loss, according the Thielman, 3-2 against Bandera.

“We played pretty well really,” Thielman said. “We gave up two goals early and then we kind of dominated the rest of the game.”

On Wednesday February 4th the Wimberley girls soccer team traveled to Bandera to take on the Lady Bulldogs in the second district game for both teams.  The Lady Texans’ offense proved potent once again in the game, racking up 6 goals while the defense held Bandera to just a few shots on goal and no goals allowed.  The Lady Texans were looking to rebound from a tough loss to Boerne just a few days earlier, and the win sparked emotions for the Wimberley squad heading into their third game in district play against Fredericksburg.