Last year was El Paso’s time to shine in the UIL baseball spotlight, as the Socorro Bulldogs took home the Class 5A state championship.  This year, Lubbock is making a bid to be the baseball capital of the state.  Coronado and Monterey are alive in the Class 5A Region I semifinal round.  Estacado, who seems to have sent a representative to every state tournament this year, is alive and well in Class 3A Region I.

Monterey is coached by former Klein Collins head coach Kent Meador, whose former squad is making a bid themselves in Region 2 to return to the state tournament.    Meador guided the 2007 Tigers’ team to the state semifinal against eventual champion Cy-Fair.  This season, Meador’s first in Lubbock, he has the Plainsmen making what many observers are calling a Cinderella run through the Region I bracket. 

After winning a play-in game to even qualify as the fourth seed in District 2-5A, Monterey proceeded to knock out District 1-5A champions El Paso Americas in three games in the bidistrict round.

They followed that with an area-round upset of Weatherford before sweeping District 3-5A champs Burleson (30-6) out of the playoffs during last weekend’s regional quarterfinal round.

In this week’s semifinal match-up, they draw another Cinderella team, the Flower Mound Marcus Marauders, who finished as the fourth seed in District 6-5A and have made an equally impressive playoff run. Last week, in two wins against District 7-5A champs South Grand Prairie, Marcus scored 34 runs.  There may not be enough glass slippers to go around Abilene this weekend.

It would be extremely fun–and a great story to cover–if Meador’s new team and Meador’s old team were both able to navigate their respective regional brackets and somehow find a way to face each other in Round Rock.