From the Archives: From 2-7 to the Third Round
The 2024 Rebels Who Refused to Go Away
There was a point during the spring of 2024 when the story of the LHS Rebels looked like it might be about all the games they almost won.
A one-run loss here an extra-inning heartbreak there. A great pitching performance wasted because the bats went quiet. A defensive mistake at exactly the wrong moment.
By the middle of April, the Rebels were 2-7 in District 2-6A, tied at the bottom of the standings with six district games remaining. For a program accustomed to playing in May, time was running out.
What happened next changed the way the 2024 team would be remembered. The Rebels won five of their final six district games. They fought their way into the playoffs on the final afternoon of the regular season. They survived a three-game series in El Paso, swept Fort Worth Paschal in the area round and became the last District 2-6A team still playing.
By the time it was over, the team that had once been tied for last place was standing in the Class 6A regional quarterfinals.
For most of that final series, they looked capable of going even farther.
“We’ve Got Unfinished Business”
Long before anyone knew how dramatic the season would become, the Rebels entered 2024 believing they had something to prove. They had reached the postseason in 2023 but finished just 7-8 in district and was swept out of the bi-district round.
The returning players remembered it. Senior Duncan Hayes said it plainly before the season: “We definitely have unfinished business.”
There was experience everywhere. Drew Martin returned behind the plate. Trajan Chavez was back at first base and on the mound. Hayes could play almost anywhere on the infield. Around them were Aiden Serrano, Cole Neatherlin, Andres Cordero, Jaden Rogers, Ean Shadden, Cam McClinton and a collection of younger players ready for bigger roles.
Chavez wasn’t shy about what he thought of the lineup.
“We can hit,” he said.
Then he doubled down.
“One through nine, we’re solid.”
There was reason to believe him. The challenge was turning all of those individual pieces into a consistent baseball team.
The Catcher in the Middle of Everything
It didn’t take long for Drew Martin to make his presence felt. During the Tournament of Champions opener against Lubbock Monterey, the Rebs jumped out to an 8-0 lead.
Martin went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI, including a two-run shot in the first inning. Aiden Serrano added two hits, three runs and a stolen base. Jaden Rogers pitched well enough to put LHS in position to win.
Then everything unraveled.
Monterey scored seven runs in the top of the seventh and stunned the Rebels, 10-8. It was one of the first examples of a pattern that would follow the Rebels for much of the season: The boys were often good enough to win. They simply couldn’t always finish.
Later that same day, Grapevine shut them out 6-0 and by Saturday morning, LHS was the only team in the 17-team Tournament of Champions without a victory.
Then the Rebels beat Abilene High.
Then Andrews.
Two straight wins to finish the weekend. Even during the losses, the pitching staff had shown promise, so had Martin behind the plate. That would become increasingly important as the season went on.
Garcia trusted him to manage a staff that would eventually become the strength of the team. By season’s end, Martin would be named District 2-6A Defensive Player of the Year, throwing out 19 runners attempting to steal while also hitting .308.
But before any postseason awards came, there was a lot of baseball left to survive.
District Baseball Arrives
LHS entered District 2-6A play at 9-8-1 and had won six of its previous eight games. The first opponent couldn’t have been much tougher. Defending district champion Frenship.
Game One became a nightmare almost immediately. The Rebels walked 10 batters. Dropped fly balls extended innings.
Frenship scored nine runs in the second.
Frenship 15, Rebels 3.
The Tigers completed the sweep over the next two days. LHS scored only seven runs over the three games and struck out 31 times in 19 innings. Garcia didn’t hide from the problem.
The Rebels weren’t putting enough balls in play. Meanwhile, their pitchers were often giving them a chance.
They were 0-3.
Next came Midland High.
A Big Stage and a Game of Inches
March 28 brought the Rebels and Bulldogs to Momentum Bank Ballpark. The rivalry lived up to its surroundings. Trajan Chavez started for the Rebels and for seven innings, he gave the Rebels almost everything they could have asked for:
Two hits allowed. Nine strikeouts. Only one earned run.
The Rebs scored twice in the first. Martin brought Andres Cordero home with a sacrifice fly, and Caiden Olivas drove in another run. Midland High answered. A misplayed ball in the wind helped the Bulldogs score two. Another run followed in the fourth.
It was tied in the fifth.
From there, the game became a fight. In the seventh, the Rebels put runners at second and third. Martin ripped a hard line drive.
Right at the third baseman.
In the eighth, Nick Retana escaped a Midland High threat with runners at second and third. Then, in the ninth, Midland High finally won it. 4-3.
Garcia called baseball “a game of inches.” The Rebels were beginning to learn just how painful those inches could be. They were 0-4 in district. Chavez had shown that the pitching staff could stand up in big moments, Martin was beginning to show why Garcia trusted him so much behind the plate.
The First Breakthrough
LHS finally broke through against Odessa Permian. On April 4, Permian scored two runs in the first inning. The Rebels answered immediately with three.
Then two more in the second.
Trajan Chavez handled the rest.
Seven innings.
Six strikeouts.
LHS won 7-3.
Aiden Serrano went 3-for-4 and scored three times. Martin homered and drove in two. Jaden Rogers had two RBI. One night later, Nick Retana and Cam McClinton combined on a three-hitter in a 5-2 victory.
Cole Neatherlin homered. Martin drove in two more. LHS had its first district series win. The Rebels dropped the finale 3-1, but for the first time there was evidence that the season might be beginning to move in the right direction.
Then came Midland High again.
Three Games That Could Have Gone Either Way
If there was a stretch that tested this team emotionally, it was the Midland High series. The first game had already ended 4-3 in nine innings. In Game Two, Chavez and Midland High’s Jacoby Dutchover gave Midland one of the best pitching duels of the season.
Chavez went all seven.
Two runs.
Four hits.
One walk.
Dutchover was good too.
The Rebels trailed 2-0 entering the seventh. Chavez reached base. Courtesy runner Yomar Prado eventually came around when Duncan Hayes singled him home.
2-1.
The Rebels put another runner aboard but Dutchover got the final outs. Another one-run loss. Martin had quietly helped keep the Rebels close all night.
He threw out a Midland High runner trying to steal in the fifth. Then, with Midland High threatening in the seventh, he picked a runner off second.
Garcia later called him “a wall” behind the plate. “He’s been fantastic this year,” Garcia said. The next afternoon somehow hurt even more. The Rebels jumped ahead 3-0. Midland High came back. LHS tied the game 5-5 in the sixth. Then the Rebels went ahead 6-5 in the top of the eighth when Martin singled home Rey Rey Ruiz.
They were three outs away.
Midland High tied it.
Then loaded the bases.
A sharply hit ground ball gave the Rebels a chance at an inning-ending double play. The runner barely beat the throw at first.
Game over.
Midland High 7, LHS 6.
Three games against the Bulldogs.
Three one-run losses.
Two in extra innings.
The Rebels had been agonizingly close each time. The standings didn’t care.
2-7.
Six district games remaining.
The Point Where It Could Have Ended
Years later, the 2-7 record may be the most important number in the entire story because that’s when the season had a choice.
Fade away, or fight. The Rebels chose the second.
Trajan Chavez later described a conversation with Garcia during the difficult stretch. The senior believed the team needed to be pushed harder. Garcia agreed—but challenged Chavez and Martin, the team’s captains, too.
Leadership couldn’t come only from the coaches. The players had to demand something from each other. Neither Chavez or Martin needed to make speeches every day. Their leadership looked different.
Martin handled the pitching staff.
Chavez took the ball.
Hayes moved wherever the team needed him.
The boys knew they were a good team, they just needed to put the pieces together. The Rebels headed to San Angelo with almost no room left for another bad weekend.
One Hit
April 18 - Trajan Chavez took the mound against San Angelo Central. Seven innings later, Central had one hit.
One.
The Rebels won 6-0.
Chavez struck out five and walked one. The offense finally gave him room to breathe. Cole Neatherlin went 3-for-3 with two RBI.
Martin had one of his best offensive games of the season:
2-for-2. Triple. Two RBI. Hit by pitch. Walk.
Chavez added two hits and two RBI’s himself. One day later, Jaden Rogers decided to join the act. He threw a two-hitter.
Six strikeouts.
One walk.
LHS won 4-1.
Rogers gave much of the credit to the teammates playing behind him.
“I trust them 100%,” he said. “I trust my outfield. I trust my catcher, everybody.”
Then came the sentence that described the Rebels’ new mindset:
“We’re locked in.” They weren’t approaching the remaining games like regular-season baseball anymore. “We’re treating each day like it’s playoff practice.”
The next game made the turnaround impossible to ignore. The Rebels scored 13. Neatherlin went 4-for-4 with three RBI and three runs. Ean Shadden gave the Rebels five strong innings on the mound.
The Rebels swept Central.
From 2-7 to 5-7 and suddenly, LHS wasn’t chasing the field anymore. The Rebels were in the middle of the playoff race.
Everybody Had a Role
By late April, the identity of the team had changed. Chavez had become the workhorse. Rogers had rediscovered the confidence he showed during tournament season. McClinton was developing into something LHS hadn’t expected early in the year—a late-inning weapon.
The lineup was becoming harder to navigate and behind all of them was Martin. Every pitching change meant a new arm, new stuff and often a different way of attacking hitters.
Martin handled it.
Fastballs from Chavez.
Rogers’ breaking balls..
McClinton’s slider.
Retana.
Watters.
Shadden.
Whoever Garcia brought through the gate, No. 3 was waiting behind the plate.
That mattered even more once the games became elimination games.
Senior Night
April 25. - Odessa High. Senior Night at Ernie Johnson Field. The Rebs needed another win. Chavez took the mound. Again. This time the Rebels gave him an early lead. Caiden Olivas singled home a run. Duncan Hayes followed with a two-run double. Martin added another RBI in the second.
Four early runs.
Chavez did the rest.
Seven innings.
Two runs.
LHS won 4-2.
Chavez had now gone at least seven innings in five consecutive district starts. Over those 35 innings, his ERA was 1.40.
Garcia called him the best pitcher in the district. Chavez saw something else happening around him. “The defense was going crazy,” he said. “We’re starting to hit the ball again and it’s all starting to come together.”
The timing couldn’t have been better. The playoffs were approaching. The Rebels still had to get there.
One Game for the Season
Odessa High won the next game 10-2. That meant April 27 became simple. LHS vs. Odessa High. Winner goes to the playoffs. Loser goes home. Ernie Johnson Field.
Cole Neatherlin opened the bottom of the first with a home run. The Rebs jumped ahead 3-0. Odessa High came back. By the seventh inning, the game was tied 4-4.
Then the Bronchos threatened to end the season.
Walk.
Single.
One out.
Garcia went to Lawson Watters. Watters hit the next batter. Bases loaded, One out.
The tying game had suddenly become a season hanging ninety feet from disaster. Watters admitted the nerves hit him. Then he settled himself.
“I did my job,” he said later. “I threw my offspeed and I got my double play.”
Exactly what Garcia had hoped for.
Ground ball.
Rey Rey Ruiz.
Duncan Hayes.
Trajan Chavez.
6-4-3.
The inning was over. The dugout erupted. The Rebels came to bat with its season still alive. Neatherlin walked. Chavez laid down a sacrifice bunt. Odessa tried to get the lead runner.
The throw got away.
Everyone safe.
Then Odessa High made the decision that said plenty about the batter coming next. They intentionally walked Drew Martin. Bases loaded and Nobody out.
That brought up Caiden Olivas.
He drove the ball so deep into the outfield that there was no play to make. Neatherlin crossed home and for a few seconds, Ernie Johnson Field was nothing but maroon jerseys racing toward one another.
Rebels 5, Odessa High 4.
Olivas had one thought about what came next.
“I think we have a team that’s ready to make a run in the playoffs.”
He was right.
El Paso: The Season Refuses to End Again
The bi-district series sent LHS to El Paso Eastwood.
Game One:
Eastwood 8, Rebels 6.
One loss from elimination but Garcia sensed something different in his players. They were upset because they believed they should have won. That was important. He told them he believed they would win Game Two.
They did.
Rebels 4, Eastwood 2.
Then came Game Three. The Rebels had spent weeks with their season on the line. Eastwood hadn’t.
The Rebels won 8-2.
Series over. The Rebels were moving on. The pressure that had nearly killed their season had instead prepared them for the postseason.
Neatherlin Gets Hot
By now Cole Neatherlin had become one of the most dangerous bats in the lineup. And “hot” might actually undersell it. Over LHS’s final 13 games, Neatherlin hit .476 with four home runs and 12 RBI and that continued in the area round against Fort Worth Paschal.
Game One in Abilene:
Neatherlin went 4-for-4.
Two doubles.
Two RBI.
A stolen base.
Run scored.
Chavez worked 6⅓ innings.
McClinton recorded the final two outs.
Rebels won 5-4.
One victory from the third round.
“That’s My Pitch”
Game Two belonged to the Rebel pitching staff. Jaden Rogers started.
Five-plus innings. Two hits. Six strikeouts.
Then the sixth inning began. Paschal put two runners aboard with nobody out. Garcia went to McClinton. By then, everyone knew what was coming.
Slider.
Slider.
More slider.
McClinton struck out the side. “I feel like nobody can touch it,” he said of the pitch.
Two more outs followed in the seventh. The final one came with a little help from Martin. Paschal’s Charles Witherington tried to pull his bat back, but the ball nicked it and rolled in front of the plate. Martin recognized it immediately. He picked up the baseball and tagged the batter.
Game over.
Rebels 3, Paschal 0.
Series over.
The Rebels celebrated with the gold glove trophy and somehow, the team that had been 2-7 in district was headed to the regional quarterfinals.
The Rebels had won nine of its last 11 games. More than that, they were now the last District 2-6A team still playing.
“Everything”
Someone asked Garcia what was different about his team in May.
His answer? “Everything.”
The Rebels were playing loose. They trusted each other. They trusted the coaches.
The pitchers attacked hitters. The defense made plays. The lineup found ways to score. McClinton had become a reliable closer. Rogers had rediscovered his early-season form. Martin controlled the game from behind the plate. Chavez was bringing his best. Neatherlin couldn’t stop hitting.
Players who had spent March waiting for something bad to happen were now expecting to find a way to win.
Garcia said it best:
“You get a little confidence, and you start believing in each other, anything can happen.”
The 2024 Rebels had reached that point.
One of the Best Teams Left
No. 11 Fort Worth Boswell waited in the regional quarterfinals.
Boswell was 29-6. The Pioneers had just eliminated Midland High. They were experienced and good at finding ways to win close games. The Rebels didn’t care.
Game One became another classic pitching battle. Chavez started. Neatherlin gave him a lead with a solo home run. For more than five innings, one run looked like it might be enough. Chavez allowed only one run on four hits and one walk over 5⅓ innings.
Boswell finally tied the game in the sixth. Then scratched across another in the seventh.
Final:
Boswell 2, Rebels 1.
Another one-run loss.
One game from elimination again.
Four Runs Ahead
LHS came out in Game Two like a team with no intention of going home. Martin singled. Courtesy runner Jace Cohlmia scored when Olivas drove an RBI triple to center.
Olivas later scored on a wild pitch.
2-0.
Then came the third. Aiden Serrano scored on a Duncan Hayes single. Andres Cordero ripped a double down the left-field line to bring Hayes all the way around.
Rebels 4, Boswell 0.
For 3½ innings, the Rebels were forcing a Game Three. There were chances for more. The Rebels loaded the bases in the second but hit into a double play.
Another runner was thrown out trying to take an extra base. Garcia knew those missed runs mattered. In playoff baseball, leads had to be extended. Then came the bottom of the fourth.
Two outs.
Boswell began hitting.
One single.
Then another.
A run.
Another hit.
A wild pitch.
Another hit.
Before the Rebels could stop it, the scoreboard had changed completely. Six runs. All with two outs.
Boswell 6, Rebels 4.
The Rebels kept fighting but the lead was gone. There just wasn’t another comeback left.
The End of a Season Nobody Expected
The final record was 20-19-1 but if that is all someone knew about the 2024 Rebels, they wouldn’t know the team at all. They wouldn’t know about the 15-3 district-opening loss.
Or 0-4.
Or 2-7.
They wouldn’t know about three one-run losses to Midland High. They wouldn’t know about Chavez’s one-hitter. Rogers’ two-hitter. Martin throwing runners out and keeping balls in front of him when every base mattered. Neatherlin catching fire.
McClinton becoming a force out of the bullpen. Watters getting the ground ball that saved the season. Olivas driving the ball into the outfield with the bases loaded or an entire dugout spilling onto Ernie Johnson Field because they had somehow found their way into the playoffs.
They wouldn’t know that the Rebels lost Game One in El Paso and came back to win the series or that they swept Paschal. They wouldn’t know that the Rebels eventually became the last team from its district still playing. They wouldn’t know that against No. 11 Boswell, the Rebels weren’t simply happy to be there. They believed they could beat them.
Garcia did, too.
“To be honest with you, I thought we were the better team,” he said after the series.
That was how far the 2024 Rebels had come. From wondering whether they would even make the playoffs, to leaving the third round believing they should have gone farther.
A Senior Group That Left Its Mark
The postseason brought recognition.
Trajan Chavez was named the Midland Reporter-Telegram High School Baseball MVP. Eric Garcia was named Coach of the Year.
Trajan Chavez, Drew Martin, Cole Neatherlin and Aiden Serrano earned first-team honors.
For Martin, the recognition reflected what his teammates had seen all season: a senior catcher directing the staff, controlling the running game and providing another steady bat in the lineup. He finished with 19 caught-stealing throws and a 37% caught-stealing rate.
Garcia’s reflection on the team meant more than any postseason list.
“I’m extremely proud of this group.”
He called it one of the most fun teams he had ever coached. There had been too many ups and downs to count. Too many close games and many moments when the season could have gone the other way.
Yet through all of it: “They never stopped fighting.”
At the end of the season, Garcia said something that might mean even more to the players as the years pass.
“I won’t forget this team for a long time.”
Neither should Rebel Baseball because the 2024 Rebels weren’t the team that made everything look easy. They were the team that found out how hard baseball could be.
They were the team that lost heartbreakers.
Made mistakes.
Fell behind.
Ran out of room for error.
And kept showing up anyway.
They went from 2-7 to the third round. From tied for last place… to the last team standing.
2024 LHS Rebels
20-19-1 District 2-6A No. 3 Seed Bi-District Champions Area Champions Class 6A Regional Quarterfinalists
They were almost out of time, they simply refused to go away.
Sources: MRT Archives and amazing coverage throughout the season by Chris Hadorn. He truly captured the essence of our Rebels that season.
Now, I know this one was long - it was hard to leave anything out because I was actually there for this one. Trajan Chavez is my son and the memories created that season were amazing. This team was something - and as parents, we couldn't have been prouder. So 2024 was special to us, it was special in general. Because I was there, I have a video of playoffs, it's posted at the bottom.
I'll be taking a break from Archives for a bit, there are things that I have to get to at Ernie Johnson Field. Be back soon with more Archive stories. If you are interested in helping our Rebels in any way for the Spring 2027 season, Please let us know! You can visit the website Sponsorship page for more info!
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