Griffin Herring makes bid for perfection in Southlake Carroll's win over Fort Bend Ridge Point in 6A Texas (UIL) Baseball State Semifinals

Herring, an LSU commit, had a perfect game heading into the fifth inning

Author:
Andrew McCulloch
Updated:
Jun 10, 2022 9:48 PM EDT
Original:
Jun 10, 2022

ROUND ROCK, Texas — Southlake Carroll’s Griffin Herring trotted back out to the mound for the bottom of the fifth with a shot at a historic achievement ahead of him.

The Dragons’ senior ace had hurled four perfect innings to start his team’s Class 6A Texas high school baseball state semifinal matchup and needed three more to become the third pitcher in UIL Baseball State Tournament history to throw a perfect game.

Instead, Herring’s bid for perfection slipped away when Fort Bend Ridge Point junior first baseman Travis Vlasek singled into left field.

Herring, an LSU commit, responded by cranking up his intensity.

The Dragons’ senior punched out the next three batters with a trio of swinging strikeouts, shutting down any chance of a Panthers’ comeback. Herring’s complete-game gem on the mound helped lead Southlake Carroll to a dominant 6-1 victory over Fort Bend Ridge Point on Friday afternoon at Dell Diamond in the Class 6A UIL Baseball State Semifinals.

The victory vaults the Dragons into the 6A state title game for the first time since 2019, when SLC last hoisted a state championship trophy on the baseball diamond.

“It feels amazing. It's the best feeling in the world, you know, coming off knowing that you did your job for your team, and they did their job for you and coming out with a win,” Herring said.

“They're a really good team. There's a reason they're here, and if I was expecting to throw a perfect game, you're just asking to be disappointed. That's kind of how I normally pitch. I like to get fired up when guys get on base. That's when I pitched the best: when a guy's on second or third or whatever.”

Herring started an efficient complete-game effort with a strikeout against the Panthers’ leadoff hitter, senior shortstop and Texas A&M commit Justin Vossos, and kept the rest of their lineup off balance from that point onward.

The Dragons’ ace struck out half of the 26 batters he faced Friday. He finished the game with 13 strikeouts and no walks, having allowed five hits.

Ridge Point’s lineup struggled to keep up with Herring’s velocity throughout the contest and ended the day with 12 swinging strikeouts.

“The fastball was huge for me in getting ahead,” Herring said. “That's how I normally use it, and I use a slider as a strikeout pitch. But today, the slider wasn't amazing so I had to go to the fastball and it really was hitting spots and making pitches when I needed to.”

Herring, who has been on a roll throughout the postseason, was at his sharpest for the Dragons in the state semifinals with his situational pitching.

Southlake Carroll’s ace limited Fort Bend Ridge Point’s lineup to a 1-for-8 clip in two-out scenarios and yielded just two base hits throughout 11 at-bats with runners on-base. He also prevented the Panthers from putting a runner in scoring position until the bottom of the sixth inning.

Herring credited his teammates’ defense, their collective preparation and his precision on the mound after locating the strike zone on 63 of 94 total pitches.

“It just all comes down to the mental (side) with me. Generally I don't take all 110 (pitches) to get it done in the sevens, but today I really was just hitting my spots, and I was really locked in. I was really telling myself, ‘Don't try to overthrow. Don't try to do anything more than what you have to.’”

The Dragons struck early and often offensively.

Southlake Carroll took a quick 1-0 advantage on an RBI double to left field by junior shortstop Ethan Mendoza during the top of the first inning. A throwing error into the infield allowed Mendoza to slide into third and senior center fielder Owen Proksch — a Duke signee — to score after lacing a leadoff single into left.

“We've been preparing all week for this. We knew what they had. They're obviously great pitchers, especially if they can get here. We played (Ridge Point) a couple years ago and the same thing kind of happened. But they were pretty good. We worked on it all week. We prepared and then we executed.”

The Dragons were also opportunistic offensively and capitalized on five errors committed by Fort Bend Ridge Point throughout the game.

Southlake added another run during the second when a wild pitch with the bases loaded plated pinch runner Tanner Sumer, and tacked on two more during the third inning.

A mishandled ground ball at second base with the bases loaded let pinch runner Colin Robson safely cross the plate, which set up a sacrifice fly to deep center field by senior third baseman Cole Bedwell, pushing Carroll’s advantage to 4-0.

Mendoza slapped a double in the fourth and scored for the second time on a fielding error by the Panthers’ first baseman on a hard-hit grounder down the right field line.

He also helped the Dragons tack on their final insurance run with an RBI single up the middle that drove in Porksch.

“I think it’s our clutch,” Mendoza said. “We’re playing all the time during the fall and spring, so we’re always competing and it always comes back and shows on the field. We just know with two outs, it’s time to bear down and get a hit.”

Mendoza finished the game with a 3-for-4 performance that featured two doubles, two runs scored and an RBI, while Proksch ended the game 2-for-3 with a triple, two runs scored and a walk.

The duo helped anchor the top of Southlake Carroll’s batting order, which collectively boasted a 7-for-11 day at the plate between the first, second and third hitter in the Dragons’ lineup.

Fort Bend Ridge Point pushed its only run of the day across after back-to-back doubles by junior first baseman Travis Vlasek and junior catcher JJ Kennett to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Panthers, however, were unable to rally against Herring, who slammed the door shut by retiring the next three hitters in order.

“He’s crazy. He’s the best pitcher I’ve seen in my lifetime. He’s the real deal,” Mendoza said of Herring. “It can lowkey be a little boring (as a fielder) because with him, it’s just strikeout, strikeout, strikeout. We don’t get many balls (hit to us), but that’s a good thing. He’s just unbelievable.”

The season-ending loss dropped Fort Bend Ridge Point to 35-6 overall this year and ended the Panthers’ season in their first trip to the 6A state tournament since 2019.

The Dragons, meanwhile, improved to 33-8 overall with the win and moved into the 6A state championship for the first time since 2019 when they topped Ridge Point 17-0 in five innings in the state title game.

Southlake Carroll will be looking to lock up its fifth baseball state championship in school history when it takes the field for the 6A state title at 4 p.m. Saturday at Dell Diamond in Round Rock.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so it feels really great right now,” Mendoza said. “We've got to keep playing our baseball. With our pitching, if they do well, we're gonna do well. We just got to hit the ball well. All you can do is hit the ball hard and whatever happens happens.”

“It means everything,” Herring said. “I've been with this program for four years. I was here in 2019 and watched them do it. And I've been dreaming about that moment ever since, so I’m ready to make it a reality.”

Here are photos from Friday's 6A semifinal game:

All photos by Tommy Hays