Sam Russell pitched a complete game without yielding an earned run, and Quentin Reed hit a home run to cap a night of Knight long ball as McCallum defeated visiting Cedar Creek, 4-1, in a winner-take-all game that decided the District 26-5A title Friday night at Northwest Park.
Reed’s homer over the left field fence came in the bottom of the sixth after Jesse Levy-Rubinett nearly homered to right-center field. The towering shot bounced off the yellow ribbon for a double. After a passed ball and a throwing error, Levy-Rubinett scored to make it 3-1. Reed’s shot made it 4-1 then Russell retired the side in order in the top of the seventh for the win.
The title is the Knights’ sixth straight district championship. The Knights finished district play with a 15-1 record, one game better than the Eagles’ 14-2 district mark. Both teams will advance to the state playoffs.
The Knights broke up a scoreless game in the bottom of the fourth with two runs after singles by Ben Wangrin, Luke Richter, Jesse Reed and Russell. The Eagles answered with an unearned run in the top of the fifth.
Friday’s game was a rematch after the two teams clashed in a tense, back-and-forth classic at Cedar Creek on Tuesday night. In that game, McCallum lost 3-2 in 9 innings. After scoring one run in the first when Angel Vasquez stole home and one in the top of the ninth when starting pitcher Jonah Smith scored the potential winning win, the Knights lost their first district game as the Eagles plated two runs in the bottom of the ninth to force the winner-take-district showdown between two 14-1 teams.
The Knights will open the bi-district playoffs by traveling to Cedar Park Friday for the first game of a best-of-three series. First pitch is at 7 p.m. The Knights will host Game 2 at noon Saturday at NW Pony. If the teams split the first two games, game 3 will begin at NW Pony 20 minutes after the end of Game 2.
The Eagles host Vista Ridge in the first game in a best-of-three Bi-District series on Friday. Game 2 is at Vista Ridge on Saturday and if necessary Game 3.
The Texas High School Baseball website ranked McCallum (21-4) No. 12 in its final regular season Top 25 5-A poll.
![A PRIDE-FUL WEEK OF CELEBRATION:
As part of AISDs week-long celebration of PRIDE, students of the McCallum Spectrum Club worked to create a week full of activities, prizes and helping hands to support the schools LGBTQ+ community. The club is widely available for anyone to join, and specializes in creating a safe space for students to share and give advice. While Pride month itself isn’t until June, AISD designates one week in March to celebrate and commemorate the importance of this part of the student body.
As part of the week of festivities, the club held a booth in the front hall handing out pride stickers, pins and merch to passers by. For junior Zane Joly, the booth idea was brought up as a way for students to engage with one another, and connect with the community.
“I call out to people in the halls, ‘hey, do you want stickers?’” Joly said. “We just give out free pride stickers and sometimes other free pride merch to the students of Macallum because everybody likes pride stickers.”
While the week itself is packed with a variety of different activities, the overall goal is to bring students closer together and create a safer environment for self expression at McCallum.
“The idea for the student panel largely came from the black [history] student panel that is done during Black History Month,” Joly said. “And the idea for giving out free stuff was developed at Spectrum last year.”
Joly is not only a member of the Spectrum club, but also holds a leadership position giving them a more hands-on role with the projects and Pride Week activities.
“McCallum has a very high queer population,” Joly said. “I think Its nice that we get a chance to celebrate Pride because Pride Month is during the summer, and I think its just a nice thing for the community and getting to just celebrate it.”
While the merch table at lunch was only a small part of the numerous parts of McCallum’s Pride week, for Joly this small impact made all the difference.
“The purpose of Pride is to make people not feel alone and to make them feel safe,” Joly said. “The goal is [to make people] happy about a part of themselves that theyre often conditioned to not feel good about.”
Caption by Chloe Lewcock. Photo by Shila Gill.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/53597258192_6e7168d8ae_o-1-1200x676.jpg)
