Not long after Celina lost its Class 4A Region II final series last playoffs, Major Brignon heard chatter that his team would fall off in 2024.
Celina graduated big names like Baylor signee RJ Ruais and Tennessee Tech signee Jackson Rooker, so people started to express doubts.
“‘Y’all might not even win district,’” Brignon, a senior Louisiana-Monroe signee, recalls the skeptics saying.
Predictions from the naysayers were wrong. Celina (36–5) went 12-0 in District 11-4A and earned the most wins in school history last week with its win over Texarkana Pleasant Grove in Game 2 of the best-of-3 4A Region II semifinal series. Before winning 35 games last season, the most wins Celina had in baseball was 33 in 2002, the year it won the school’s only state championship.
Apart from etching its name into the record books, the win over Pleasant Grove advanced Celina to the 4A Region II finals. On Thursday, Celina meets Texarkana Liberty-Eylau at 6 p.m. at Winnsboro High School for Game 1 of the best-of-3 playoff series that will determine who makes the 4A state tournament.
It will mark the third straight year that Celina and Liberty-Eylau will meet in the playoffs. Celina beat Liberty-Eylau in the 2022 regional semifinals en route to a 4A state semifinal appearance. Liberty-Eylau bested Celina in last year’s regional finals.
“We’re not focused on emotions and getting revenge, but it will be fun to play them for a third time to try and punch our ticket back to [state],” Brignon said.
Celina has prepared all season for this moment, playing top Class 5A and 6A teams such as Rockwall-Heath, Prosper, Lovejoy and Allen. Despite being a smaller school, Celina beat them all.
“Within our district, we play some good teams. But we also don’t get a lot of competition,” said junior catcher Connor Rabe, an Odessa College commit. “When we get to go play those bigger schools, it’s just fun for us to go compete with some better players and also the adversity is fun to [experience].”
So the playoffs have been a bit of a breeze. Ranked third in The Dallas Morning News’ final regular season Class 5A/others poll, Celina swept all four of its previous playoff opponents.
But playing tough competition isn’t the only thing that has helped Celina to success in Class 4A. Brignon finished the regular season with 34 RBIs, while Kingston Hangartner had 32 and six home runs. Through 41 games this year, Celina has a 1.592 ERA as a team.
Those numbers won’t guarantee a series win over Liberty Eylau, which has become something of a playoff rival.
“I think that we’ve played teams that have more athletic ability than them. And that’s not a knock on them at all because they are where they are for a reason, but they’re very tough mentally,” said Celina coach Troy McCartney, who is in his third year at the helm. “I think that makes them extremely dangerous. I expect it to be a really tough series for both sides.”
The closest the program has gotten to a second state championship was in 2022, when it fell to Sinton 9-0 in the 4A state semifinal.
This year’s team has a good chance of heading back to state, and McCartney is proud of Celina’s progress.
“That doesn’t mean we’re content with where we’re at right now. We know and we understand that there’s still a lot of work to be done and a ball left to play,” McCartney said. “Hopefully, if we can take care of our business and stay focused and execute, [we can handle] more business and have more surprises in the bag for us. Like a jack-in-the-box.”
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