April Showers Tigers In Titles

Pictured are Braxton Byers and Alyson Edwards

The month of April has been good to the diamond Tigers and Lady Tigers. Very good. So good that the Tigers and Lady Tigers have showered in winning streaks, metals, and championships on the diamond as they continue to set the bar higher for the 2A-4 competition. Their latest accomplishment was defeating JC Westside to win both of the Conference Championships for the second year in a row.

The Lady Tigers softball team cleaned house in the 2A-4 also as they finished regular season play by sweeping JC Westside in a double header on Friday, April 22^nd. Alyson Edwards solidified the final game against the Lady Rebels by hitting a home run over the fence and possibly into Mansfield City Lake earning the Lady Tigers two scores. Mansfield completed a perfect 10-0 record against conference opponents and their win Friday night earned them the 2A-4 Conference Championship for the second consecutive year.

“The team played great in both games last night to finish out the regular season,” said Head Coach Donnie Eveld. “Cole Smith stepped up big time for us by giving us some awesome pitching in both games. Our defense has really picked up and been playing well lately. Alyson Edwards hit two big shots for runs to get the offense fired up in the second. The girls are playing really good right now and we hope to keep our momentum up going to districts.”

Mansfield’s Baseball team caught the final trophy shower by defeating JC Westside Friday, April 22^nd. Braxton “Boomer” Byers and Trey Vaughan signed JC Westside’s pitchers up for the Navy as Byers sailed a home run out of the park and Vaughan sent a missile to the back of the park’s fence. The Tigers went undefeated against conference opponents going 10-0 and finished the regular season with an 18-4 overall record.

Head Coach Layton Robinson had nothing but praise for his team after the game. “Last night we got 2 great pitching performances from Zayne Dugan and Drew Elmore. Both threw complete game shut outs for us. Our defense stepped up big time and played smart baseball. We started off a little slow offensively but when Westside did a couple of things to get our guys fired up, then we came alive and put them away.”

“It’s been a great year so far,” Robinson continued. ”The guys come out and work every day looking to get better than the day before. We finished 18-4 while playing some good non-conference opponents. The team knows what it takes to win and feels like we have a chance to win every time we step on the field. We’ve been battle-tested for sure but never get our heads down when we fall behind early. They’ve proved that never give up attitude by going 5-1 in two run games and coming back from behind to win 8 games. We’re excited to start postseason play and see where the chips fall.”

Mansfield will load up the buses next week and travel to Magazine as both teams hope to keep their winning streak alive at the District Tournament. The tournament begins on Wednesday, April 27th and Mansfield will face all of the same familiar foes from the 2A-4. With both teams being the #1 Seed in the tournament, both will play the winner of the #5 and #4 Seed game as their Game1 on Thursday, April 28th. This isn’t the Tigers and Lady Tigers’ first rodeo though. The Lady Tigers won District, Regionals and finished as State Runner-Up Last year while the Tigers earned the District and Regional Titles in 2021. They’ll be ready to take on all comers at the District Tournament.