STATE CHAMPS: Highlanders hold off Dulles for third crown

UPDATE: Market Street Celebration video.

ROUND ROCK, Texas - Carter Hope made two mistakes on Saturday and Dulles made him pay, but The Woodlands High School baseball team put together enough offense to claim a 9-5 win and the program's third UIL Class 5A State Baseball Championship.

Carter, the games' Most Valuable Player, gutted out a 30-plus pitch first inning and cruised to the seventh when Dulles' Darren Sheppard blasted a three-run homer at the Dell Diamond. But while Carter cruised, the Highlanders' bats did the talking.

Hope struggled in the first inning. Under oppressive heat, The Woodlands right-hander, drafted a day earlier in the third round by the Kansas City Royals, walked two batters, hit another, and gave up a two-run single, the only hit of the inning.

But the Highlanders wasted little time in putting the heat on Dulles, scoring four times in the bottom of the first inning to erase the 2-0 deficit. Charlie Warren (2-for-3, 2 RBI, run) laced a one-out single and after Alex Dunlap drew a walk, Chris Andritsos got The Woodlands on the scoreboard with an RBI single and moved to second on the late throw to the plate as Warren scored.

Blaine Gillespie (2-for-3, 2 RBI, 2 runs) put the Highlanders in the lead for good with a single, scoring courtesy runner Casey Schneider and Andritsos. Gillespie scored on a Josh Shaw (2-for-4, 2 RBI, run) single.

The Woodlands struck for four more runs in the third inning to take a commanding 8-2 lead.

It all happened after two outs. Gillespie, Brown and Shaw reached base on consecutive hits, producing a pair of runs. Josh Pruitt walked and Luke Sherley reached on an error, scoring courtesy runner Alex Hale, and Warren coaxed a bases-loaded walk to make it 8-2.

It's the Highlanders' third state championship in three tries. The Woodlands previously won state baseball championships in 2000 and 2006.