Can the keys to Lake Travis’ first appearance in the 6A, Division 1 state baseball championship game be found among quotes from the vast library of baseball movies?
Three worked their way into a conversation with Lake Travis baseball coach Ryan Rogers this week as he prepped the Cavaliers for the season’s penultimate game against Keller.
To find success – and the school’s first state baseball title – the Cavaliers must take it just one game at a time one final time, overcome the pressure of the moment and surroundings, and, well, take care of business. All of which is much easier said than done.
“You have to learn your cliches.”
Coaches love their cliches, and Rogers is no different. But here’s the thing about cliches: while they may be boring, they are often based in fact. Perhaps not the way Kevin Costner’s Crash Davis teaches them to Tim Robbins’ Nuke Laloosh in “Bull Durham,” but still.
After 5 weeks of playing best-of-3 playoff series to reach the state championship game, the Cavaliers – and the Indians for that matter – don’t have to plan their pitching around winning multiple games. Not that Lake Travis treated any game in the best-of-3 format differently. It’s always been a 1-game-at-a-time approach.
“Our motto has always been the next most important thing is the next game in front of us,” Rogers said. “So, we’ve been playing 1-game series all year long, you know?”
It worked. The Cavaliers won the opening game in 4 of the 5 series and swept 3 opponents. When they dropped games – the opener of the San Antonio Johnson Area series and the second game of the Laredo United South Regional Semifinal series – they bounced back quickly and convincingly, beating Johnson 12-4 and LUS 6-0.
“It’s still 1 game at a time in a 2 out of 3,” now graduated outfielder/pitcher Luke McBride said Tuesday. “We always focus on 1 game. We’re never looking forward.”
That’s simply not their style, Rogers said.
“If you look at what we try to do, we try to win pitches, win innings, and win games,” Rogers said. “So it doesn’t change anything. It just happens that this is the state championship game. But this is why we train the way we do, why we go about the mental part of the game. I mean, it’s cliché, but it’s the next game in front of us.”
“Clear the Mechanism”
While it might be the next game in front of the Cavaliers, no amount of practice, talk, and prep can change the fact that Dell Diamond will be the biggest stadium the Cavaliers have played in, and the crowd will be the largest they’ve played in front of. Those factors could create added pressure, so what’s the best way to deal with that?
Rogers quoted tennis legend Billie Jean King, whose famous mantra that “pressure is a privilege” greets tennis players as they enter Arthur Ashe Stadium at the U.S. Tennis Center during the U.S. Open, and said his team has been playing with pressure of some sort all season long.
“For sure, there is some added pressure with this game, but this group has wanted that pressure,” he said. “And they have had pressure along the way in different senses. There was pressure early on when we started the season below .500 (Lake Travis had a 6-7-1 record at the end of February). Not many teams have made it this far starting that way, but we’ve put the guys in those pressure situations and adverse environments to prepare them for this in the end.”
Along with Rogers’ advice for handling pressure, the Cavaliers didn’t have to look far to find someone close to the program with practical experience. Catcher Yanu Molina and cousin Nelson Molina, an infielder, have direct access to a family member with a fair bit of baseball experience in high-pressure situations. Yanu’s father Yadier played in his share of do-or-die playoff and World Series games during his St. Louis Cardinals career. Yanu said his father offered some advice on handling those big moments.
“For him, it was just being so focused on the game so that anything else doesn’t affect you,” Yanu said of his father’s advice. “It can be different for someone else, but honestly, I feel the same way. I just want to be so focused on winning that whatever happens outside doesn’t affect me.”
Rogers said he doesn’t watch a lot of movies, but one came to mind: Kevin Costner’s “For Love of the Game.” The movie centers on Costner’s character’s attempt to drown out the noise of both Yankee Stadium and his personal life as he pitches one last game.
“It’s like what Kevin Costner did,” Rogers said. “You clear the mechanism. When you focus on the things that are constant, the things you’re familiar with, all of a sudden you forget about everything else outside.
“Then the things that take central focus are the things you’ve done 1,000 times before,” Rogers continued. “That’s why we do the things we do, so that when you get to that big moment, you have something you can go to, something you’re familiar with. And when you’re familiar with something, you’re usually pretty confident because you’re prepared. So we’ve tried to create as much familiarity within the game that we can.”
Playing their 44th game of the season Saturday, the Cavaliers should be familiar with most anything they come across.
“There’s just 1 thing left to do…win the whole *&^#@! thing”
On the bus ride back from Mumford following last Friday’s semifinal clinching win over Summer Creek, the Cavaliers made sure they acknowledged what they’d accomplished but also began focusing on their lone remaining task.
“Our goal has been to go to state,” Nelson said. “That’s why we’ve stayed together, why we’ve worked hard every day together. We’ve worked as a family to make it to the state finals.”
What was the conversation on the bus like?
“It’s just the confidence that we can win 1 game,” Yanu said. “We know our pitching staff, and with this group of guys, if we can just score runs for our pitchers, they can do their jobs. On the bus ride home Friday, we really knew and we feel really confident that we could win this thing.”
And to paraphrase Tom Berenger’s Jake Taylor from “Major League,” it’s really the only thing left to do.
While Rogers might not be familiar with all the movies, it’s fair to say he’d be okay with life imitating art Saturday, provided it’s his Lake Travis team that leaves Dell Diamond like Costner’s Billy Chapel left Yankee Stadium at the end of “For Love of the Game.”
The final curtain will drop Saturday.
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