Seniors play for graduation present

The seven seniors on the Odessa High baseball team know it: High school graduation is a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Yet so is the chance to make the state tournament.

And in the end, these Bronchos do want to walk - as long as it's after four balls.

Odessa High begins its Class 5A regional semifinal best-of-three playoff series at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.

Meanwhile, the Class of 2009 is participating in graduation at 8:30 p.m. Friday at Ratliff Stadium.

After the Bronchos defeated Amarillo Tascosa on Saturday at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview to advance in the postseason, head coach Mike Munguia asked the seniors what they wanted to do.

The options: a Thursday-Saturday series, in which the team travels to Abilene for one game today, returns late to Odessa afterward, then drives back to Abilene late Friday night to make the second game at 12:30 p.m. Saturday (game three is 30 minutes after game two, if necessary).

Or, a Friday-Saturday series, like the Bronchos have done in two prior postseason series, where it is one night's stay Friday.

"We said, ‘No let's just go up there and stay the night and play the next day," senior center fielder and pitcher A.D. Hinojos said. "That way we're rested up there, and we don't have to worry about our legs being tired."

It is a choice that most playoff teams that make runs this deep must make, but it is a first in a while for Odessa High. Just three seasons ago, OHS ended a 43-year playoff drought. The Bronchos are two rounds away from the state tournament, which they have not reached since 1962 (OHS has five state tournament appearances, including a Class 2A state championship in 1950).

The current situation is akin to a football team still being alive during Thanksgiving and having to practice on the holiday, prohibiting family trips.

Like graduation, this all is special.

"It's once-in-a-lifetime thing, walking on stage," Derek Loera said. "But playing for a state championship, that's also once in a lifetime."

So, the seniors - Hinojos, Loera, Edward Ramirez, Jose Longoria, Miles Torres, Denver Pradon and Thomas Franco - will instead participate in a pre-graduation ceremony walk during a graduation practice Friday morning.

"We asked the seniors and they said, ‘Let's play baseball," Munguia said. "Hopefully they will get a chance to walk the stage in college."

It was pretty cut-and-dry. A one-game playoff is also an option, according to the University Interscholastic League format, but that wasn't really an alternative for Odessa High.

 "We feel safer with the best-out-of-three series," Hinojos said. "Something bad can happen in one game, and you never know. A pitcher can be on, a pitcher can be off any day. Best two out of three is probably a whole lot better than a one-game series."

The seniors were all on board, Hinojos said. Perhaps not surprisingly, their parents voiced the biggest concern with the plan.

"It was mostly the parents wanting to see us walk the stage because it's basically what we've been - they've been - waiting for their whole lives," Hinojos said. "But we pretty much just want to play. We've been around baseball our whole lives. It's our one chance, too."

THE BASICS

>> Who: Odessa High (31-5 overall), District 2 (1) vs. Flower Mound Marcus (22-12), District 6 (3).

>> What: Class 5A best-of-three regional semifinal series.

>> Where: Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene.

>> When: Game 1, 7:30 p.m. Friday; Game 2, 12:30 p.m. Saturday; Game 3, 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 2, if necessary.

>> On The Net:

>> Next opponent: Winner of El Paso Socorro-Flower Mound series Friday and Saturday.