HEATH, TX - It's been an incredible year for the baseball team at Rockwall Heath High School.
"I knew we were going to be good, but it's turned into something really special now," says Rockwall Heath head coach Greg Harvey.
The Hawks finished the regular season with a perfect 32-and-0 record. To add to their reputation, USA today recently named Rockwall Heath as their choice for the top baseball team in the country. It's high praise for a program that's only been around for four varsity seasons.
"I'm just kind of numb to that," Harvey says. "I don't even know what to say. Being ranked number one in the nation kind of blows me away."
"It feels good for other people to look at this team and say that's the best team in the country," says Rockwall Heath pitcher and infielder Jake Thompson. "That feels really good, but we don't think about that when we're in between the lines."
In 2008, Plano West finished the regular season with a perfect record as well and went on to win a state championship. But along the way, they lost two games, one in the fourth round and one in the fifth. The lesson learned was simple. Get to the state tournament any way you can.
"In our case when we played Georgetown and Taylor Jungmann who pitches for UT went out there," says Plano West head coach Kendall Clark. "We had to let him have his game even though you’re sitting there undefeated, you thinking you can't do that, but to win the series, we had to let him win his game one."
And how can Rockwall Heath lose. After all, they've got a secret agent on their side. James Baune is easily confused with the movie character James Bond. How is he introduced? "Well its Baune, James Baune," he says. Naturally he wears number seven.
As for the success of the team, the odds have been on their side. "It's a game of failure, because in the majors you can fail seven out of ten times and your still batting 300 and that's good," Baune says. "It's just weird. It's weird to think that we're number one in the nation right now.
"We don't think about the streak," says Thompson. "We come out here and try to bring everything we've got to keep winning. We don't think about 32-and-0, we just come out here and play our game and hopefully we do our best.
"Once we became ranked number one in the metroplex, number one in the state, number one and highly ranked in the nation, now number one, teams respect that record but at the same time they want to be the team to beat us first.
And that's a scenario that Rockwall Heath may have to face. Another challenge in the playoffs is whether their opponents want a single elimination game or a three game series but it's a challenge Rockwall Heath welcomes with open arms.
