Schulenburg Wins Regional Baseball Title

The Schulenburg baseball team keeps finding more and more dramatic ways to win.

The Shorthorns (19-13) won the Region IV-2A title and earned a berth in the state semifinals with a thrilling best-of-three series win over Danbury (29-11) Saturday.

Both teams split a doubleheader Thursday. The series then took a break for Schulenburg’s graduation Friday.

When the series resumed Saturday in Houston, the Shorthorns won the clincher 2-1 on a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning by Jayse Janda that plated Owen Brenek.

The Shorthorns, who lost their first seven games of the season and finished fourth in their district in the regular season, have now knocked off Kenedy, Premont, Johnson City and Danbury here in the postseason. Schulenburg is 5-0 in elimination games this postseason.

Now the Shorthorns advance to play Centerville (26-5-1) in the state semifi-nals. Details on that series were not finalized at press time. The winner of that state semifinal series will advance to face the New Home/Tom Bean winner.

This series started back on Thursday when Danbury beat Schulenburg 4-0 with the Shorthorns only managing two hits and striking out 13 times against Danbury hurler Aidan Faila. Brycen Schramek and Owen Brenek had the only two hits for the Shorthorns in that opener. Owen Brenek pitched a complete game five-hitter for the ‘Horns in that game.

But the Shorthorns bounced back in Game 2 winning 5-0 behind another gem from senior pitcher Brycen Schramek, who pitched a complete game three-hitter with seven strikeouts. Offensively, Tyson Wagner had two hits, including a double, and two RBIs in that game. Jayse Janda and Reid Janda both scored two runs each.

In Game 3,Aaron Janecek started the game and pitched into the second inning before being relieved by Connor Lichnovsky, who hurled six innings of five-hit, one-run relief.

Ian Reeves had two hits for the Shorthorns but they couldn’t get much more going early.

Danbury held a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning, when Schulenburg tied the game up. Reid Janda started the inning with a single, stole second and then scored on a Tyson Wagner single.

In the bottom of the seventh, Owen Brenek was hit by a pitch and advanced to third on groundouts by Lichnovsky and Janecek before Jayse Janda’s single to left brought him home, and touched off a wild celebration by the Shorthorns and their fans.