Boerne Champion vs Boerne High History in the making, March 25, 2025

In historic first game between BISD baseball teams, BHS wins 1-0 Boerne Champion vs Boerne High History in the making, March 25, 2025

A capacity crowd showed up at Greyhound Field Tuesday night to witness the first meeting between the Boerne High and Boerne Champion baseball teams, and the game certainly lived up to the hype.

It came down to extra innings before the Greyhounds tallied the only run of the game to win it 1-0 in the bottom of the eighth frame over their cross-town rivals.

Both coaches said the first clash between the two schools was a memorable one.

“It was a special night for both sides and you hate to be on the losing end of it, but it was eight innings of good ball,” said Chargers coach Ben Woodchick.

BHS coach Geoff Curtin agreed.

“The first one ever and it’s 1-0 in extra innings,” he said. “The fans got their money’s worth.”

Curtin said they couldn’t celebrate too long because they faced Champion Friday at Charger Field for their second meeting.

BHS is 14-3 overall and 6-2 in district, while Champion is 14-5 overall and 4-2 in district.

Friday’s game between the Chargers and Greyhounds has been moved to Saturday at 1 p.m.

While no runs were scored through the first seven innings on Tuesday, it wasn’t for a lack of opportunities.

The Greyhounds had a runner at third with no outs in the second inning and had another runner at third with one out in the sixth.

Champion loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the fourth and had a runner at third with one out in the fifth after a triple.

In all those cases, neither team could drive in a run.

Both coaches said the atmosphere may have affected how their teams played.

“It’s a very emotional game and in emotional ball games, sometimes the bats are lacking because the kids are trying to do too much. There’s smoke flying and air horns in left field and you’re trying to shut that up,” said Woodchick, referring to a crowd of about 50 Greyhound students watching the game from over the fence line in left field. “How do you shut it up? You put a ball out there, and unfortunately, I think our emotions got the best of us a little bit at the plate at the most inopportune time. I don’t think we’ve had bases loaded and no outs and not scored a run all year. We earned those bases and to not cash in hurts.”

Curtin said he knew his players would be up for the game and was trying to calm them down as much as possible.

“The town of Boerne had been waiting for this game for 15 or 16 years, so I knew they would get hype from everywhere, so I just tried to be the steady voice,” he said. “You can’t play baseball wired because you throw balls away and swing at bad pitches.”

Both starting pitchers - AJ Grizzaffi for Champion and Campbell Jackson for BHS were another reason neither team could score through the first seven innings.

Grizzaffi went 5 innings on 80 pitches and gave up 2 hits before being replaced by Sawyer Smith in the sixth.

Jackson tossed 104 pitches and left after going 7.1 innings and giving up 2 hits. Hudson McNew came in and closed it out and picked up the win since he was the pitcher of record when the Greyhounds scored.

Tuesday’s game came down to the bottom of the eighth when the Greyhounds broke through. With one out, Walker Hill singled to left and advanced to second on a wild pitch. A ground out to the right side of the infield by Ronnie Scarbrough moved Hill to third with two outs.

Brooks Perez was intentionally walked to bring Reese House up to the plate. The first pitch that House saw went into the dirt and allowed Hill to score from third to end it and the celebration began for the Greyhounds.

“Unfortunately for them and fortunately for us, they throw a wild pitch, and we get the score,” Curtain said.