Greyhounds have solid season in Curtin’s first year leading the team

The Greyhound baseball team was the last one standing in Boerne ISD this year.

The Boerne baseballers almost played into June and were eliminated in the fifth round of the 4A playoffs on the final day of May by Calallen in Corpus Christi.

It was a great playoff run for the Greyhounds and it came with a new coach and after the team suffered heavy graduation losses last year, but they didn’t miss a beat despite also losing long-time coach Bill Merrell to retirement.

Geoff Curtin led this year’s team to regional finals and they were one series short of playing at the 4A state tournament.

Curtin said it came as no surprise to him that the team did so well because of how they adjusted to all the changes.

“We just play for each other, they responded to what we asked them to do, they really bought in from the beginning,” he said. “If you get a tight-knit group, they’ll play for each other.”

Seniors this year were Jace Preston, Grant Tamplet, Tanner Tuschinski, Thomas Puckett and Ethan Guerrero.

Curtin said to make it one round short of state means a lot to him in his first year coaching the Greyhounds.

“It’s special to be only one of eight teams left,” he said. “Anytime you can get to the fifth round of anything, it’s a long time to play and these guys have been battling and grinding.”

The 2024 Greyhounds were defeated by Calallen, ironically on the 20-year anniversary of Boerne and Calallen meeting in 2004 in the same round.

The Greyhounds won that regional final series and went on to claim the 2004 state championship. For more on the ’04 title, be sure to look in the Boerne Star.

Against Calallen, Boerne held the lead early in both games. In Game 1, the Greyhounds were up 1-0 after one inning but the Wildcats tied it in the second and then scored 2 runs in the seventh to win it.

Something similar happened in Game 2 after BHS tallied the first run of the game in the top of the first inning, but the Wildcats answered with 2 runs in the bottom half of the inning and never trailed.

Just like in Game 1, Calallen tallied the winning run in the seventh. The Cats scored 7 runs in the series and plated 3 of them in their last at bat to win.

Calallen went on to win their state semifinals game but lost in the championship this week.

This year’s Boerne team finished 30- 11 overall and went 12-3 in district to win the 27-4A title in Curtin’s first year.

They may have come up one round short of state, but Curtin said that doesn’t take away from all they achieved this year with basically a brand-new team. They only returned two fulltime starters from last season.

“I’m excited we were one of eight teams left in 4A in the state,” Curtin said.

Boerne returns a good nucleus in 2025 and will play at the 5A level for at least the next two years so there will be some challenges, but Curtin said they’re ready.

“I’m excited to compete in 5A and see where we are, especially with 7 of 9 (starters) coming back,” the coach added.