TAPPS baseball: Walk-off sac fly lifts TCA-Addison to first state championship since 2006 (2024)

ARLINGTON — While running the bases during the fifth inning of his team’s TAPPS Division I state championship game against Houston St. Thomas on Wednesday, TCA-Addison junior first baseman William Lehman felt a pop in his right leg. Despite the injury, he was able to remain in the game and drove home the winning run two innings later.

Lehman’s line drive to left field scored Joshua Liu from third in the bottom of the seventh to give TCA a 7-6 victory over Houston St. Thomas on Wednesday at UT-Arlington’s Clay Gould Ballpark.

Lehman’s walk-off sacrifice fly concluded a big day at the plate. He went 3 for 3, including a two-run single to left in the fifth to cap TCA’s rally from a 6-2 deficit.

On that hit Lehman limped to first because of a right ankle injury suffered while running to second base in the fourth. Lehman was replaced briefly by a courtesy runner but remained in the game at first base, sometimes limping and hopping while making defensive plays.

“When it happened I thought, ‘I’m built for this. I’m tough, so why not?’ It’s just me being a good teammate. I show up every day for these boys, and they would do the same for me,” Lehman said. “On the sacrifice fly, I was sitting curveball and I knew it was going to come. I saw it and I was smiling while I was swinging.

“My ankle feels good now. We’ll see about tomorrow morning.”

TCA (21-12-1) picked up its eighth TAPPS state title since 1992, but its first since 2006. St. Thomas (22-14-1) was denied its fifth TAPPS state championship since 2010 and ninth since 2001.

In the seventh inning, Liu reached base on a fielding error, went to second on an errant pickoff throw and went to third on a wild pitch.

Liu (1-0) picked up the pitching win with some gutsy long relief. He took over for freshman starter Ryan Janacek and threw 3 2/3 innings, allowing one earned run, three hits and one walk. He had one strikeout, which ended the seventh inning that stranded St. Thomas speedster Donte Lewis at third base. Liu also had two hits, one of them an RBI single to right to start TCA’s rally in the fifth inning.

“The strikeout will stick with me, getting it with a fast runner on third,” Liu said. “Me and my dad (Victor) practice visualization all the time. Yesterday we talked about like what are we going to do if we’re down six runs or down 6-2 like that. I have to give my dad credit for that.”

The state title concluded the rejuvenation of the TCA program under coach Pat Leach after the Trojans won 29 games combined in the previous three seasons. TCA surprised a 33-3 Tomball Concordia Lutheran squad 4-3 in a semifinal Tuesday night. Concordia, ranked No. 2 in Texas High School Baseball Large Private Schools poll, has two Division I signees in outfielder Michael Herndon (Baylor) and pitcher Alexander Petrovic (Auburn).

“Those guys don’t care who they play. They’re going to play the same way,” said Leach, a former college coach at New Mexico and Stetson. “These guys do a great job on focusing on the game instead of who they are playing.

“When we were down 6-2 I told them to keep having good at-bats and to keep coming. We use the phrase WAC: We are coming.”

Samuel Jenkins also had a RBI single for TCA in the fifth. Jenkins and Steven Ramos had two hits apiece for TCA.

St. Thomas scored three runs in the fifth inning, starting with a run-scoring single to right-center by Braydon Salinas. Luke Edgecomb scored and Salinas went to third on an errant pickoff throw to first. Salinas eventually scored on a Logan Duplantis sacrifice fly to right.

Jaden Deshautelle had two hits for St. Thomas, including a double. Center fielder Edgecomb also had two singles and two spectacular catches in the outfield to take away probable extra-base hits. Gavin Ernst took a hard-luck loss, not allowing a hit or an earned run in two innings of relief.

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