Red-hot Round Rock baseball team wins sixth straight game

ROUND ROCK — In high school baseball, as Round Rock coach John Carter noted Tuesday, “It’s not how you start — it’s how you finish.”

The Dragons continued a torrid stretch to their latter half of the season, posting their sixth district win in a row as Travis Sykora and Andrew Hardin combined for a no-hitter in a 7-0 win over Stony Point at Stony Point High School.

“Our guys really commanded the strike zone well with all three of their pitches and were in attack mode,” Carter said. “They did what we needed them to do for us to win, and we finally put pitching, hitting and defense together in a solid all-around game.”

Graduating a loaded senior class from last year that led it to a district title, a spot in the regional tournament and more than 30 wins, it would be understandable if Round Rock had taken a major step back this season.

But the Dragons (10-13, 7-3 District 25-6A) have put themselves in a position to make a run at another playoff spot and maybe even another district title with a strong final four games.

“We played a hard pre-district schedule, and this district is really tough,” Carter said. “We just have to keep playing one pitch at a time, but the kids have really bought in.”

Sykora — a dominating junior right-hander who plays shortstop when not on the mound and was recently named one of the 25 top prospects for the 2023 draft by MLB.com — struck out nine of the 12 batters he faced, while throwing just 43 pitches in four innings.

Hardin finished out the final three innings with little trouble and recorded four strikeouts.

“Travis is a special kid with a special talent — God gave him a gift,” Carter said. “He gives you a lot of confidence and gives your team a lot of confidence. Then you have a guy like Andrew who can come in and give a whole different look with a different off-speed pitch and a change of eye level.”

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Sykora, who was as dangerous with his bat as he was dominating on the mound, finished 3-for-4 with three doubles and two RBIs, doubling home Landon Schroeder in both the first and third innings as Round Rock took an early 3-0 lead.

Devin Petry blasted a two-run triple and Trey Garza followed with an RBI single for the Dragons during their four-run fourth.

Schroeder finished with three hits, while Petry and Garza both had two hits.

Walker Alsobrooks belted a triple in other notable offense for Round Rock, but it was the pitching that was the headline of the night.

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“Tonight went well,” Sykora said. “My slider was working good and the fastball was coming out of my hand pretty good. It was a great performance by everyone, and Hardin came in and shut the door.”

Both Sykora and Hardin noted that the team has gradually improved as the season has gone along and that the Dragons seem to be peaking at the right time. Round Rock enters the final two weeks of the regular season tied for second place in the district standings, one game behind Westwood.

“We like the position we’re in at the moment,” said Hardin. “We’ve won six straight in district and have the bats rolling and the pitching is doing well. This team has good chemistry and it has gotten better throughout the year.”

Round Rock has one of the tougher finishes to the district schedule with single games against the Tigers and Vandegrift and a two-game series with Vista Ridge remaining, and Carter knows there’s still a lot of work left to secure a playoff spot.

“We’ve put some games together here, but we have to continue to do so,” he said. “Stony Point is a good team and they’re going to come out and give us their best on Thursday and we’ll have to play well to win. Our motto is one pitch at a time and one game at a time.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Round Rock baseball beats Stony Point