DEER PARK, Texas – For the first time in 27 years, the Deer Park High School baseball team is state bound after beating Travis 2-1 on Saturday to win the Regional title.
“Since last year we didn’t make it, we didn’t want to have that same feeling again.” said senior catcher Reece Moon.
“These guys have been focused and we’ve executed, they’ve made the big plays when they had to, they come up with the big hits when we needed to and here we are,” said Deer Park head baseball coach Chris Rupp.
The last Deer Park team to make it to state was in 1990 when Andy Petitte was the starting pitcher for the Deer.
Rupp realizes how special that accomplishment is for this program.
“I think it shows how hard it is to do that. Because since then we’ve had some pretty good teams and there’s a lot of teams that are good and don’t get to go,” he said.
The players recognize the magnitude of the opportunity as well.
“It’s incredible. It just shows the kind of effort that our team has. We’ve put in the work to get here and it has paid off,” said pitcher Dylan Pullig.
