Yoemen Sports Network

The Cameron runners competed in their only day track meet of the year this past Saturday at McGregor.  The field of teams was larger than the previous week's meet at Moody, but Yoemen, which finished 3rd overall as a team, and the Lady Yoe, which finished 4th overall as a team, managed to fair well in a number of events. All teams will be in the Lexington this Thursday, March 23.  

JV Boys

Pole Vault: Damon Smith - 2nd (8-6); Shot Put: Kevin Advic - 3rd (33-4); Discus: Dominic Lewis - 4th (93-4); Long Jump: James Shields - 5th (18-3); 800 M Run: Jeremy Glaser - 6th (2:25.02).

Team Standings: 1. McGregor (241); 2. China Spring (152); 3. McGregor B (45); 4. Vanguard (31); 5. Bruceville-Eddy (28); 6. Abbott (24); 7. Cameron Yoe (21); 8. Rosebud-Lott (19); 9. CTCS (14); 10. Mart (6). 

Varsity Boys

On Monday, the Cameron Yoemen moved up a few more spots to number 18 in TxHighSchoolBaseball.com’s 3A statewide rankings. Cameron, which came into this week’s action at 12-3-1 overall and 3-0 in 20-3A play, had a big time matchup with the Rogers Eagles on Tuesday - another team included in the rankings at number 20.

The hot start is the best the Yoemen have had since the 2011 season. That year saw Cameron win their first and only state championship in baseball. With that said, when you see impressive records, you generally have teams that find ways to win games as opposed to losing them.

On Monday, the already long list of Yoe High seniors signed to play at the next level grew again as Daniella Hill signed her letter of intent to play softball for McLennan Community College.

Hill is the lone senior on this year’s softball team, and according to Lady Yoe head coach Abe Vargas, she has been an ideal player you look for in your program.

“Just watching how she plays and her work ethic, it’s good. She works and she wants to get better. She loves the game and enjoys playing. You can tell the passion she has for the game. I think she is going to be able to carry that over at MCC and she will continue to improve on her game and get better. MCC is getting someone that will help their program.”

Though Vargas has only coached Hill for two years now, he sees how much she has improved and what she brings to the plate.

Lexington

The Cameron Yoemen ran their win streak to 10 games in a row in dramatic fashion by scoring eight runs in the final three innings of a 8-4 win over Lexington last Thursday.

Things were not looking good early as Lexington jumped on Cameron with 1 in the first and 3 in the second to take a 4-0 lead. That advantage held up until 2 Yoemen runs in the fifth, 2 in the sixth and 4 in the seventh completed the comeback.

“We just told them to relax and focus,” said head baseball coach John Broussard on his message to the team on falling behind early. “They had a guy throwing that was keeping us off-balance up there. We told them to be real selective. You might get one pitch and you need to square it up. When we scored the two in the fifth, it kind of energized us and got us motivated.”

For the first three innings of last Wednesday’s spring break contest with Lexington, we had a game that could have went either way. That was before the Lady Eagles broke things wide open in the fourth inning with eight runs in a 11-0 victory over the Lady Yoe.

Cameron saw their biggest momentum swing in the bottom of the first when starting pitcher Madison Brunson caught a line drive right back at her. The freshmen alertly doubled off the runner at second base.

The only earned runs against Brunson came via the long ball, as Kylie Hobbs hit one out in the first, followed by a Kacie Johnson home run in the third to extend the lead up to 3-0.

However, in that same third, Brunson suffered a hand injury and was forced to leave the circle.

“She pitched pretty well and then she got hit in the hand and she got hurt and we had to take her out and that made it tough for us,” said Lady Yoe head coach Abe Vargas.

JV Boys

4x400: Damon Lewis, Dominic Lewis, Kevin Advic, Jeremy Glaser - 4th (4:19.17); Shot put: Dominic Lewis - 4th (33-10); Discus: Dominic Lewis - 3rd (89-11).

Team standings: 1. Clifton (181.15); 2. Rogers (130); 3. Meridian (76.5); 4. Milford (48); 5. Mildred (45); 6. Moody (36); 7. Rosebud-Lott (32); 8. Cameron Yoe (18)

Varsity Boys

This past week, both the Lady Yoe and Yoemen soccer programs played their final two matches of the year.  Cameron hosted Gonzales on Friday and Taylor on Tuesday in the two final games in 26-4A district action. 

Yoemen

On Friday, the Yoemen battled every moment of the game, but district champ Gonzales flexed their muscles down stretch in a 13-0 loss. 

“They are going to be our district champion and I have a feeling they are going to be playing for a while,” said Yoemen head coach Kevin Webb.  “They have about 9 or 10 seniors that have stuck together over four years, and now they are reaping the benefits of that.  That is something I want our program to have.  With our large freshmen class it is something to talk about and shoot for.”

Monday was the final game for three Yoe seniors in a 4-0 loss to Taylor.  “They are three totally different types of kids,” said Webb. 

Hearne

Sometimes a confidence boost is just what a team needs to begin a winning streak.  On Friday from the Mark Humble Softball Complex, Cameron did just about everything right in a 15-0 thrashing of Hearne in a 4-inning run rule.  

“We were disciplined at the plate, got some hits and did what we needed to do to get the win,” said head coach Abe Vargas.   “I told the ladies we needed to get some work out of this game.  We went four innings and that was good for our pitchers. 

Cameron used two pitchers in the game, with Maddy Humble going the first three, giving up no hits, walking none and striking out three.  Madison Brunson relieved Humble in the fourth and gave up no hits and struck out one.  Together, the combo gave up no hits, walked none and struck out four in the perfect game bid. 

More importantly, Cameron (1-2) picked up their first district win while keeping Hearne (0-3) winless in 20-3A play. 

Winning is the name of the game, and since February 25 that is all the Yoemen have been doing. On Tuesday from The Yards of Cameron, the win streak was extended to nine, and more importantly to two in 20-3A, with a 5-4 win over Franklin. 

If you had just seen the first three innings of the game, it appeared as if we were headed towards an offensive shootout, with both teams scoring all of their runs in the early going. However, both pitching staffs settled in from that point on and never allowed a run the cross home plate.   

“I felt like we wasted away a few opportunities with our small ball,” said Yoe coach John Broussard.  “But, our guys stayed in the game and we played good defense and our pitcher threw strikes and gave us a chance to win today.  That is what it’s all about.”

The past two weeks, Cameron had lifters from both the boys and girls side compete at the regional level. On March 4, two Lady Yoe lifters traveled to Academy for the regional meet.  Selene Vargas was 10th in the 114-class with 605 pounds and Daejanay Bell was 6th in the 259-class with 800 total pounds. On March 9, the four Yoemen traveled over to west for the region II division III meet.  Garrett Roeder was 11th in the 198-class with 1,115 pounds lifted, Nico Vargas was 10th in the 220-class with 1,245 pounds, Doratis Lewis came in 6th in the 275-class with 1,340 pounds, and Adrian Lewis was 6th in the super heavyweight division with 1,360 pounds. Neither squad had a lifter move on to state, but a total six different lifters made it regionals.