The Olton Mustangs’ varsity baseball team capped off the regular season on Monday with a seeding game against the New Deal Lions in Littlefield. The Olton Mustangs won the game, 12-7, to claim the District 3-2A Championship outright.
The Mustangs finished the regular season with a mark of 165-2, 10-2 in district play.
The Mustangs are coached by Matthew Ingle and he is assisted by Estevan Rocha and Brandon Castillo.
“I love those guys. They are both younger than me, which is new to me, because I’ve always been one of the younger guys on every staff I’ve been on, until now in my career,” Coach Ingle said. “ They’re good guys, Coach Rocha is a big baseball guy and has a lot of knowledge about the game and he does a great job and coaches first base for us.”
He added, “Coach Castillo is also a great guy and is a really good coach. He explains well, he teaches well and our kids relate to him well. I don’t know that you would title him our dugout coach, but he’s a guy who can talk kids through a lot of things while Coach Rocha and myself are in the field and don’t have that opportunity.”
Coach Ingle talked about the way this group has bought into what he is trying to do this year, saying, “They’ve bought into what I’m trying to do this year and it’s not an easy philosophy. I coach kids the way I was coached growing up, whether that is right, wrong or indifferent, whether people agree or not, that is the way I do things. I think it was eye-opening to them early-on and shocking to them, but I don’t think it took long for them to understand that the way that I coach, that the aggressive, energetic, upbeat, sometimes coming down on you coaching style is all out of love.”
He added, “I could care less if we ever win another game, but I believe that the way that I coach helps push these kids to become better men in the future. That’s exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing, yes winning a district championship was amazing, but that’s not why we do what we do. Buying into who I am and my philosophy was eye-opening, but never hesitant, because I think they knew what I was doing was coming from a good spot. And then I think they realized if we take care of the little things, be respectful and we do what’s right, we’ll get what we deserve and we’ll win, and we have won. That means a lot to me for the light to be shined upon this program in a positive manner. It wasn’t easy for them to trust me, initially, like they did, so it has been really cool to see it pan out the way that is has.”
The Mustangs roster is made up of eight seniors, three juniors, four sophomores and two freshmen.
Coach Ingle talked about his starting nine and how he’s seen then grow on the field, saying, “I always tell the kids that once I get to district play I usually have a pretty good idea of what I want to do and I’m not real big on changing the line-up. I’m not saying it’s impossible to crack the line-up once we get to district, but I talk to the kids about it all the time. Baseball is not basketball, we can’t sub in and sub out, it doesn’t work that way, so we’ve kept a lot of the same nine throughout the year.”
He added, “At the top, “We have our two guys, Brody Langford and Logan Lassiter, both of them are seniors, both are really good hitters and both have very high on-base percentages. They set it up and then Adolfo Garcia comes in at the three-hole and has been there the majority of the year. He is a guy who puts the ball in play very well; he doesn’t have a skyrocketing batting average, but he has a really good onbase percentage. I like that because with those guys on the bases, he doesn’t have to do anything more than he has to do.”
Junior, Cole Montgomery, is the Mustang’s clean-up hitter.
“Cole is not your ideal clean-up hitter,” Coach Ingle said. “My four-hole guy is a guy where if we are in a situational game where we need to move people, I’ve always liked that to be my four-hole guy. He has three good on-base percentages in front of him, he can move people if he needs to move people, he doesn’t go down easy, he strings along long at-bats, he is a nuisance and I love him at that spot in the line-up. Our five and six hole hitters are the guys I want to hit the ball, which are Paul Lopez and Brennon Huguley. They’re sluggers, they hit the ball to the wall, they might strike out once in a while, but they know their job is not to go up there and walk, they’re up there to swing the bat.
He added, “Seven, eight and nine are some of our younger guys. This is where we might rotate a little bit more often; this is Alan Vasquez, Fabian Gutierrez and Jacob Marquez. None of these guys really shine brighter than the other and they all have pretty decent averages and onbase percentages. I really like Jacob at the nine-hole because he is underestimated for how fast he is. He has 23 steals on the year.”
The Mustang’s pitching rotation consists of Logan Lassiter, Brody Langford and Alan Vasquez.
“I wouldn’t say that one is the ace, I wouldn’t say that any of these guys are over the top of each other,” the coach said. “Logan and Brody have combined for nearly 86 innings, out of our 137 innings played. Alan comes in third with innings pitched with 34 and outside of that nobody has over 10 innings pitched. We’re really leaned on these three guys, they finished the season with a combined record of 14-3. They’ve been incredibly solid for us.
He added, “All of these guys are a little bit different, Alan has the nastiest stuff, he has an arsenal of pitches, but he struggles with location sometimes. Brody is probably the most electric. If he’s got it that day, he’s going to be very tough to beat. He led the team in strikeouts with 80 and he throws the ball hard and has great offspeed stuff to go with it. When he gets confident he will throw a knuckleball at you. Logan has really been our horse; he is so consistent. He doesn’t walk guys and at this level of the game, that is such a blessing. He throws a lot of strikes, which sometimes gets him hit a little too much, because he pounds the zone to much. But, he has his fair share of strikeouts with 57 and boasts an ERA of 2.15, and has only given up 13 earned runs on the year.”
The Coach talked about what he’s seen from his offense this year, saying, “Offense has definitely been our thing this year. We ended the year with a team aver-age of .358 and a team on-base percentage of .556, which means when we’re in the box the odds are in our favor to get to first base. These kids have taken a confident approach in the box, a swing first approach in the box and I think that has contributed to our success this year.”
He added, “We’re aggressive on the bags and have been thrown out on a few times this year, but I tell the guys that’s not your fault, I’m the one calling the steals. I want to be aggressive on the bags; that’s who we are. We have some guys with some incredible batting averages this year, Logan finished the regular season with a .552 batting average and an on-base percentage of .677. Cole finished with a .390 batting average, Brody had a .397 average, Adolfo had a .378 average and Alan finished with a .400 average. They’ve learned that if you will swing the bat before they throw three strikes you have a better chance of getting on base. But, if you sit there and watch, chances are you are going to get yourself into a deep count and possibly strike out and we’ve really tried to limit strikeouts.”
Coach Ingle said that his seniors have been the vocal leaders for the team this year.
“Early-on, I think they all had an idea that this was going to be what has happened historically in the program, so they lacked a little confidence,” he said. “We won some games and they figured out two things, one that this is my team and whatever is going to come out of this year is going to come from us. Two, was that this is it, this is the last time I will get to compete in a team sport in high school athletics for the Olton Mustangs.”
He added, “Brody and Logan took off with it early-on and that was huge for us. They showed a lot of our young guys what we wanted and then we got some other seniors over, Paul and Brennon and that was good for us as well. Those guys have done so much for me and have made my life so easy. You can’t leave a guy like Eric Valencia or Ozzy Rodriguez out. Eric is not a real vocal guy, but he is always doing the right thing, he is always in the right spot, he is always helping, he is always cleaning up the dugout and taking care of things. Ozzy is the funniest kid I’ve ever coached. He’s never serious, which I struggle with that because I’m a very serious type A guy. He is just here to have fun and he never lets anybody be upset for more than 30 seconds. These guys have been awesome and it’s such a blessing for me to give to have those guys my first year back in Olton.”
The coach said that he feels their strengths this season have been the senior leadership and hitting.
“ Those guys care and they want this thing to be done right,” he said. “Hitting and being aggressive has also been a big part of our success this year.”
He added, “Our fielding is frustrating, because we’re so much better than what we do in a game. You come watch us in practice and you think oh these guys are sharp, and then we get to a game and I don’t know if we lack confidence or focus or if we’re confused, or what it is. But, we’re going to get a lot of individual and situational fielding in.”
The Mustangs will play the Smyer Bobcats in the Class 2A Bidistrict round of the baseball playoffs with game one of their threegame series set for Thursday at 5 p.m. and Game two on Friday at 4 p.m. with Game three to follow on Friday at 7 p.m. if needed.
All games will be played in Littlefield.