The Sealy Tiger baseball team collected a 15-1 win over Royal to start this week of play thanks in part to a pair of six-run innings and a pair of solid pitching performances from Bass Blundell and Karsen Anderson.

Although the District 24-4A contest was supposed to be played last Friday, it was rained out and rescheduled to Monday to give Sealy three games this week. The Tigers traveled to Bellville Tuesday and were set to host Wharton on Friday in their final home game of the regular season.

Sealy got started early in its Monday road contest against Royal and got three runs in the first inning, followed by two six-run innings to extend to a 15-run lead. Although the Falcons got on the board in the home half of the third, that was the only run the hosts managed and the game ended after five innings.

Head coach Dane Bennett said with such an important game the following day, he was proud of the effort the team produced against a team like Royal.

“I thought our mindset was right because we have Bellville tomorrow and it was very easy to overlook this game,” Bennett said after Monday’s win. “Very easy not to get up, to not be engaged with this game and I thought from the start our guys were engaged and understood what the situation was, we had to get this one taken care of so we can flip our switch and get ready for tomorrow.”

The Tigers entered Tuesday’s contest third place in the district standings behind El Campo and Bellville who were tied with 6-1 records. The head coach knew there wasn’t going to be much motivational speaking needed to explain the importance of the rivalry game.

“For us, the easy answer is that we know it’s Bellville, we know it’s our district rival, the Highway 36 rival and if we win, we’re in a three-way tie again for first,” Bennett said. “There’s a lot of things for us that work into that so for us, flipping the switch won’t be the issue but it’s just going from a game like this to a game like that tomorrow where we’re going to see a lefty that throws 84 to 86 (miles per hour) with a nasty curveball. So for us, it’s just knowing we’ve got to trust what we have prepared for all year and trust in our practice reps and have a good batting session.”

In this home stretch with only one game remaining after Friday’s senior night, Bennett said the team has come a long way from its 3-14 start to the season.

“I like where we’re at right now, we lost a tough one against El Campo that we should have dominated to be honest but our team has come together, leadership has been really strong in district and we are definitely striding the right way,” Bennett said. “We’ve talked about it and started looking at it, if we can take care of what we need to take care of, as we progress into the next round of what this baseball season holds – which is playoffs – if we can get in, we have a shot.”

Bennett said he was not only impressed with the elder statesmen but also the crop of young blood that has injected some more life into this year’s squad.

“I really like our young guys that we have either brought up or have been up playing with us, I like how they are starting to mature and really show that they are our varsity players now,” the skipper said. “There’s a big difference in them from the start of the year to where we are now and that’s probably a big reason why we are where we are in district now.”