High school roundup: Springs, Brook take second, third in 24-5A

When all the dust cleared, Clear Brook, Clear Springs and Alvin ended in a 9-5 second-place deadlock in 24-5A baseball, and one game behind district champion Brazoswood.

A coin flip was used to decide 24-5A's final three postseason positions, and No. 2 seed Clear Springs meets Fort Bend Travis, No. 3 Clear Brook takes on Dulles, and No. 4 Alvin battles 23-5A champion Clements in postseason openers this week.

Clear Brook outlasted winless-in-district Dickinson 3-2 in one district finale to advance, while Clear Springs was clubbed 15-1 by Brazoswood in a contest that decided the 24-5A crown last week.

"It's great to finish in the top four and to be able to keep playing," Clear Brook's first-year head coach Gene Flores said. "All year we never knew where we would end up, but we just kept battling and won three or four games in the sixth and seventh innings, and one of the toughest was getting past Dickinson at home last week.

"Just about every game in our district is like a playoff, and there are some very good teams from 24-5A who are sitting home for the playoffs that would probably go in some other districts."

A prime example is Clear Creek, which closed with four consecutive district victories and an 8-6 league mark, but ended up a game out of the second-place tie.

On one of the flip sides, Clear Springs challenged for the league crown all season before falling 3-0 to Clear Creek and Brazoswood in its final two 24-5A outings, but the Chargers are still playoff bound.

"It was a wild race, and now it's time to start again, and hopefully, all of our district teams will find some success over the next few weeks," Flores said. "We all open against 23-5A teams, and they are always a challenge."

Clear Brook meets Dulles in bi-district action with game one at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 5. Game 2 is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday at Dulles, with Game 3 to take place, if necessary, at 2 p.m. Saturday at Alvin High School.

Clear Springs takes on Fort Bend Travis in the opening round with all the action at Manvel High School including game one at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 5, game two at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 7, and if needed, game three follows game two.

Flores is in his first season as Clear Brook's manager after serving as an assistant coach the past four years.

Clear Creek state golf

Clear Creek are a pair of golfers who will compete as Class 5A medalists on May 12-13 at the UIL State Tournament at the Jimmy Clay Course in Austin.

Amanda Mire will represent the Lady Wildcats, and Travis Dennis the Clear Creek boys, at the event, and they earned state berths with high individual finishes in Class 5A Region III.

Clear Creek state tennis

Clear Creek seniors Sammy Siegel and Hunter Carrithers meet San Angelo Central's Claire Williams and Jared Johnson at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, May 9, in the opening round of Class 5A mixed doubles at the UIL State Tennis Tournament at the University of Texas Penick-Allison Tennis Center in Austin.

A victory puts Siegal and Carrithers in the semifinals at 3 p.m. on Monday against New Braunfels' Liza Fieldsend and Beau Fieldsend or Garland Naaman Forest's Mario Sandoval and Kelsey Grambeau.

Competing in the other half of the bracket are Austin Westlake's Casey Sutton and Robin Chou vs. San Antonio Reagan's Chelsea Horan and Austin Streifert, and Memorial's Michael Riechmann and Katie Davis vs. Plano West's Eric Weygandt and Jayme Kravitz.

The 5A mixed doubles finals are at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 10.