Stephen Autrey did it with the boys basketball team in his first year as head coach.
Gerald Perry did it with the football team, but it took him an extra year.
If the trends continue, Mark Williams should be able to make the Bastrop baseball team into playoff contenders.
Bastrop has had a lot of success with new coaches and Williams, who enters his first year as head coach, knows about finding success.
After all, he led Channelview to the state tournament in his first season and the team was the state runner up.
Williams says to get Bastrop turned around, the kids have to believe they can win.
“The football team had a slogan that said, ‘time to believe,’” Williams said. “We are picking that up here with the baseball team. Bastrop has great athletes and they are capable of winning. That’s where it starts.”
The Bears had their struggles last season across the board.
The hitting was stagnant, errors were plentiful and pitching was sometimes suspect. Bastrop even struggled with injuries.
Williams said in his short time as coach, improvements have been made all around.
“We played 16 innings of baseball (Saturday) and had two errors and scored 25 runs in a scrimmage on Saturday,” Williams said. “We had 26 hits in 48 at bats, so the improvements are visible.”
Williams said the pitching has seen a lot of improvement since the fall.
Austin Hughes struck out nine straight batters in a scrimmage during the preseason, according to Williams.
“Pitchers are more successful when they have a good defense,” Williams said. “If you have a good defense, pitchers stop trying to strike everyone out.”
Williams said everything is a buildup for the rest of the season.
Pitchers will be on a pitch count scale building up to district play and right now, Bastrop looks to be heading in that direction.
“There is no reason we can’t compete for a playoff spot,” Williams said. “Our pitching is looking good, we aren’t committing errors and we are hitting. They are on top of the world right now. We need to keep building on that. They believe they can.”
Bastrop plays its first home game on March 1 against Lockhart. The first pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.