Share on LinkedIn

CANYON, Texas (KFDA) - All eyes are on Canyon Eagles baseball as the only high school team still playing past the end of the school year.

It will be a best-of-three series between Canyon and Stephenville this week. The winner will go to the state tournament in Austin starting on June 5th.

For the Eagles, it would be the team’s first state tournament appearance since 2003 and the first in the head coaching career of John Doan.

Doan is in his final season at the helm with retirement on the way. Despite not holding the title of head coach during the team’s last trip to the state tournament, Doan held a different role as one of the pieces of that magical run over 20 years ago.

“I got to be a part of it,” Doan said. “Gary Hicks was the first baseball coach in Canyon that I worked for. He’d been at Canyon for a long time, and I came from Dalhart. In 2003, I was an assistant. He had an unbelievable team. I was the first base coach, and I kept my mouth shut and those guys went and played and got us all the way to Austin that year.

“That was quite the experience playing as Disch-Falk (Field). I’ve always wanted a group to come through here and give us that chance. This group has given us the opportunity to be in the series that eventually can get you into the show of high school baseball here in Texas.”

For the players on the team, the impending retirement of their head coach has served as a motivating factor throughout each round of the magical postseason run.

“I think it’s really special,” Canyon senior first baseman Sam Johnson said of heading to the regional final in Doan’s final season. “We’ve always had that goal of, we know Coach Doan and Coach Williams together have never really made it past that fourth round. To be a part of that team that has gotten past that hump is really special and it’s so special to see Coach Doan grab that fourth round gold glove for the first time in his career.”

As for the matchup with Stephenville specifically, Coach Doan knows that many players on the Yellow Jackets roster will benefit from having been in this spot before.

“Stephenville’s got a ton of experience,” Doan said of the Eagles’ opponent. “Last year, Randall went to the state tournament, and they had to beat Stephenville to get there. Stephenville is right back here, right now... I really know nothing about their lineup other than experience, and they’ve been here before, and they know what it feels like.”

The two teams will square off at Texas Tech University, with first pitch for Game 1 scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Thursday and Game 2 set for 2:00 p.m. on Friday. Game 3 (if necessary) will be 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 2.

An audio stream of all games in the series will be available on TPSNSports.com.