AUBURNDALE, FLORIDA - Saturday, May 4, 2013:

Twenty-five teams made the trip in 2013 to the Homeschool World Series at Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale, Florida. When all was said and done, the Dallas Angels managed to squeek out the championship game from the Raleigh Warriors. But one of the other big stories of the tournament was "that orange team from Houston".

On Monday, the Falcons faced cross-town rival the West Houston Thunder in the first of two pool games that would determine which teams advanced to the qualifying games for Division I and II. Senior Chase Adams started for the Falcons and pitched a solid game to cover a handful of errors in the field. Meanwhile the Falcons bats came alive, producing 12 runs over seven innings for a 7-run victory over the Thunder (Final: 12-5). The most exciting play was probably the last; with one out and a runner at third, the Thunder batter drove a ball to shallow right. Junior Brandon Walker made a diving catch, rolled over, got up, set his feet and threw a strike to home to get the runner who had tagged from third. Two outs. Game over. Mayhem.

As the Thunder had already lost their other pool play game against the St. Louis Patriots, the Falcons had automatically secured a spot for one of the Q games on Thursday. Still, it was by no means a throwaway game as a victory over the Patriots on Tuesday would have made the Falcons the 1st qualifier from its pool, meaning a higher seed going into Thursday. It wasn't meant to be. The Falcons lost. Bad. Ugly bad. 17-0 bad.

From a mountain-top high on Monday to a rock-bottom low on Tuesday, the Falcons found themselves as the last (16th) seed going into Thursday's Q-games. This meant facing the #1 seed and defending champion Ft. Worth Riders who had breezed through their own pool games giving up a single run.

Senior Chase Adams once again started on the mound for the Falcons. The Falcons scored first on a passed ball, but the Riders managed to even things up, putting runners in scoring position in every inning but the last. The Falcons scored one more run, going up 2-1 into the bottom of the seventh. Adams struck out the first two batters. When Junior Trevor Lang fielded a ground ball to 3rd and made a clean throw to first for out number three, the stands erupted. So did the players on the field. The Falcons had just defeated the defending champs and gone from the 16th seed in the Q-games to the #1 seed for Division I play. [On a side note, it was only the second loss in two years for the Riders pitcher, a major league prospect who threw a tremendous game himself.]

Back on the mountaintop, The Falcons went into the late game on Thursday to face the Richmond Patriots in the first round of Division I play. Sophomore Tyler Brockner threw a fantastic game, holding the Patriots to just three runs. Unfortunately, that was enough for the team from Virginia. The Falcons hit the ball hard, but always seemingly right at a Patriot player. The Patriots advanced on the 3-0 win. At this point, the best the Falcons could hope for would be fifth place. That would require winning both their Friday and Saturday games.

But first things first. In order to advance to a Saturday matchup for fifth or sixth place, the Falcons would need to win their Friday game against cross-town rivals the Houston (HCYA) Eagles. To this end, Coach Shelby Thomas placed the ball (and his trust) in the hands of lefty eighth-grader Christian Springfield. Springfield threw a great game, also yielding only three runs, and the Falcons would go on to prevail in a 4-3 win that would be nearly as exciting as the game against Ft. Worth. If nothing else, it secured our position as the highest finish for a Houston-area team, and would give us a shot at the fifth place spot.

High, low, high, low, high.....

You guessed it. By this point the team was pretty-well spent. A couple of early inning errors took the wind out of the Falcon sails as the Memphis Eagles put on a hitting exhibition that would end up yielding 11 runs for a lopsided 11-2 win. Fifth place went to the Eagles...sixth place for the Falcons.

All in all, it was a great tournament. We exceeded expectations, advanced to Division I for the first time in Falcons history, and finished as the sixth place team overall which, incidentally, will put us in an excellent position for 2014. Great job Falcons!

FAITH WEST ACADEMY, KATY, TEXAS - Saturday, April 13, 2013:

The Northside Falcons came from behind in both their playoff game against Northland AND the championship game against CCS to win the 2013 NHAL District Championship.

Northside Falcons vs. Northland Cougars

After going undefeated in season play, the Falcons faced a much-improved Northland team that was able to put 11 runs on the board against some pretty good Falcons pitching. It wasn't a series of errors like we've seen in some games this season. Nor was it a lack of hitting on our own part, or poor pitching. It was simply a case of a Cougars team that came to play...and to swing the bats. The game went back and forth several times, before the Falcons finally pulled off the home-team victory in the bottom of the seventh with a bases-clearing triple (or it would have been), by Tom Brockner. Brockner had started on the mound in that game, striking out 12 of the Northland batters. But five walks and timely hitting by the Cougars put them on the board and in the lead on several occasions. The Falcons came from behind in the first inning to tie the score at three after the Cougars starting pitcher hit a three-run homer in the top. In the third inning, the Falcons took a significant lead, racking up five more runs that should have been good enough to hold of the opponents. But Northland answered in kind in the top of the fourth inning with six runs of their own...taking a one-run lead. In the bottom of the fifth, the Falcons tied the game, but Northland again came back in the top of the sixth to take the lead. This happened again in the bottom of the sixth and top of the seventh; like a snake in the infield grass, the Falcons kept slithering back and it was with this mentality that they headed into the bottom of the seventh down by one. Ben Young lead off the inning with a clutch single and advanced into scoring position on a textbook sacrifice bunt by Sam Juneau. Garrett Mullican got the benefit of an error by the left fielder to reach 2nd base safely, advancing Young to 3rd. With one out and both the tying and winning runs already on base, Northland intentionally walked Treet Williams to create a force at any bag and a possible double-play situation. It didn't work. Tom Brockner took his first pitch into right-center, and the moment Mullican touched home, the game was over and the home team side went wild, with Williams and Brockner not even bothering to round the bases. It may well have been one of the most exciting (and stressful) games that this writer (the coach) has had the privilege of seeing.

Final: Falcons 12, Cougars 11

[Quick note: There were several other key plays in this game, including clutch hits by Isaiah Young in the 6th, and yet another clutch hit by Ben Young in the 3rd (with two outs) to start the five run inning then. But all players contributed and this was the first of what would become two true team wins.]

Northside Falcons vs. Cypress Community School Warriors

After a 2-1/2 hour layover for lunch and regrouping, the Falcons returned to Lance Berkman Inspirational Field to face the winner of the earlier playoff game, the CCS Warriors. The Warriors had saved their ace for the championship game and for five innings it looked like that decision was going to pay off, as the Warriors were able to hold on to a 2-2 tie until the top of the fifth, when they put the go ahead run on. During the break, the boys were told to relax and remember how often they'd been able to put up big numbers in single innings. Sure enough, fast as a rabbit can dart down a foul line, the Falcons put up six runs in the bottom of the fifth, and those runs would be plenty enough to hold off a CCS comeback attempt in the seventh. Chris Starnes had relieved starter Garrett Mullican using his left-handed curve-ball madness to chalk up five strikeouts in 3-1/2 innings. Ben Young again provided a key hit to get things started in the big-run fifth inning. An error followed allowing Joe Lara to reach base safely as well. This was followed by a single from Mullican and a triple from catcher Treet Williams which put the Falcons up for good. Tom Brockner followed this with a single to center, scoring Williams. Jacob Dungan also reached base safely and he and Brockner scored before the Warriors could manage to come up with three outs to retire the inning. The only other scoring occurred in the top of the 7th inning when the Warriors managed to get one run home. Starnes struck out three in the inning, including the final batter...their lead-off batter and the ace who had started the game.

Final: Falcons 8, Cougars 4