FROM THE REAL ART SPORTS DESK
UT Signee Strikes Out 18 in Baytown Sterling Win

From the Houston Chronicle:

Hunter Cervenka picked the perfect night to have his best night.

The Baytown Sterling senior lefthander and Texas signee put together a magnificent pitching performance against the No. 2 team in the state, Atascocita, striking out 18 batters and allowing just three hits to lead the Rangers to a 4-1 win.

For the Rangers (22-3, 11-1 District 21-5A), it was their first win in four tries against the Eagles (25-3, 11-1) a second-year varsity squad which has quickly become one of the top programs in the area and the state. It also put them in a tie for first place in the district.

“I was in a zone,” Cervenka said. “And nothing could get me out of it.”

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Cool, very cool.

Sterling High School was where I spent six of the most miserable years of my life back when I was a theater arts teacher. Much of my thinking about public education coalesced there--that is, Ross S. Sterling is a shit hole, perfectly exemplifying virtually everything that's wrong with American schools. And it seemed to me that the kids knew it: RSS competitive teams usually lost during my tenure there, almost as though the hopeless absurdity of daily life at Sterling made underachieving the most rational choice a student could make.

And Baytown is a pretty fucked and crazy place, too, also hopelessly absurd, in a dangerous and malevolent way, with bizarre prevailing values, and petty, vindictive attitudes among those in power.

But how can one live in Purgatory without finding a few friends? Despite the overall oppressive culture of both school and city, there are many wonderful people in Baytown. A lot of cool kids I'll never forget, small pockets of sanity among the petrochemical smokestacks.

So I'm really fucking happy when my second high school does well--my first was, of course, the one I attended in the first half of the 1980s, Kingwood High School, which I always want RSS to beat, in all competitive activities; screw them snotty rich kids. I'm also happy that this badass pitcher, Cervenka, is going to be a Longhorn. Fuck, man, Sterling's actually got a shot at winning the state baseball championship. That's fucking wild!

Go Rangers!


Baytown Sterling's Hunter Cervenka shakes the hand
of head coach Paul Tadlock after hitting a solo home
run in the fourth inning against Atascocita on Friday.
(Thomas Shea: For The Chronicle)

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