Baseball teams begin 2026 season

Wylie East’s Trent Jones unleashes a pitch during a home game against Grapevine in the Raider Invitational. Photo by Oladipo Awowale / C&S Media

By David Wolman

sports@csmediatexas.com

Wylie East’s baseball team didn’t have to leave town to begin the season as the Raiders hosted their home invitational last week.

The Raider Invitational began with a 10-4 loss to two-time defending state champion Grapevine. However, Wylie East responded with two straight dominant wins, the first a 6-0 shutout of Anna, also Thursday, followed by a 14-1 win over Denison on Friday. Wylie East lost 7-3 to Frisco Centennial on Saturday.

Against Anna, Julian Barbosa, Jaxon Hatchett and Lukas Harold combined on a six-hit shutout with seven strikeouts.

All the run support they needed came courtesy of an RBI sacrifice fly by Jaxon Ylda in the bottom of the second inning for a 1-0 Raiders lead.

Parker Brunson singled in the third inning and scored on an error for a 2-0 Wylie East lead.

Carter Covington went a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate with an RBI and two runs scored.

Against Denison, Brandon Johnson set the table at the top of the Raiders’ batting order, going 3-for-4 with four RBIs and one run scored. Brunson hit a home run, while Covington, Ylda and Levi Scroggin each had two hits in Wylie East’s lopsided win over the Yellow Jackets.

Scroggin also delivered a standout performance on the mound, striking out four while allowing one run in four innings. Colt Sharrer struck out two in his one inning of work.

Wylie traveled to College Station for a three-day tournament and came away with a 4-3 win over an unnamed opponent in its final game.

Trailing 3-1 in the second inning, Aiden Beck jump-started the Pirates’ comeback with a solo home run with one out in the home half of the inning.

Wylie tied the score at 3-3 on a Chase Martin RBI groundout in the third inning before going ahead for good after Noah Smith was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the fourth inning.

Beck and Preston Camp accounted for four of Wylie’s six hits, while E. Zeitner earned the victory on the mound. Zeitner tossed 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief with two strikeouts.

The win came after Wylie lost its first four games in College Station, falling to Hallsville (8-3), A&M Consolidated (7-5), Little Elm (7-3) and Rouse (4-3).