Salado has landed in the fourth round of the playoffs for the second season in a row under head coach Augie Ramirez, who guided the Eagles there last year for the first time since 2018.

With a spot in the state semifinals on the line this week, a series victory against Bridge City would further cement this Salado team in its program’s history books. It’s an opportunity that Ramirez said it is embracing — especially after the season started on a slow note.

“My thing about this team is I felt coming into this year that this team would really hit the ball better just because we returned a lot of players with varsity experience. I felt like last year, we still kind of lacked those guys having varsity experience,” said the second-year coach who helped the Eagles reach the regional semifinals, where they fell to Longview Spring Hill in 2024.

District 24-4A champion Salado (23-10-1) will meet the 18-4A runners-up Cardinals (24-6-1) in a regional final this time after the UIL split each class into two brackets starting this season.

Salado — which began the season with a 1-4-1 mark and has gone 22-6 since — will take on Bridge City at 7 p.m. Thursday in Waller for Game 1 of their best-of-three 4A Division II Region III final series. Games 2 and 3 — if needed — will follow at 5 p.m. Saturday at Montgomery Lake Creek. A triumph would move the Eagles into their first state semifinal since 2016.

“This year, top to bottom, we hit pretty good. And you put that in with the pitching that has come around,” Ramirez continued before going on to complement each member of a four-man staff — Owen Curtis, Kannon Baird, Ethan Robledo and Ryder Balmos — that has milked a .122 batting average from opponents’ lineups through seven playoff games.

The results of that balanced combination have equaled a mostly lopsided postseason run thus far for Salado, which features five seniors. That group includes Curtis and Baird, who have combined to strike out 41 across 30 innings over five playoff starts. The Eagles have outscored foes 51-14 and produced three shutouts in a 6-1 playoff spurt, though they narrowly outlasted 18-4A champ Little Cypress-Mauriceville last week after suffering their first postseason setback in a 4-3 decision in Game 2.

Salado returned the favor with a 4-3 victory in the finale, this one settled by Brayden Naegele’s eighth-inning, walk-off triple that scored courtesy runner Cash Robinson after catcher BJ Amann started the frame with a hard single up the middle.

The sequence offered a glimpse of the Eagles’ depth in action.

“I put these guys in the weight room as well, and that’s something that’s non-negotiable. We’re going to do it three times a week and bulk up in the fall and maintain in the spring, and we’re even going to do game-day lifts. And these guys have bought into that,” said Ramirez, whose team is batting .378 overall and features four players above .400 in the playoffs. “And when you talk about somebody walking it off, it’s not about getting weak ground balls. We barreled some baseballs.”

Brody Cole, another senior, has stormed through the postseason to the tune of a team-leading .526 batting average after working back during district play to full strength from a hand injury.

Naegele (.421), a sophomore, the junior Amann (.416) — who has started each year since his freshman season — and sophomore shortstop Aezea Martinez (.400) also give the Eagles plenty of options in a lineup that also consists of leadoff hitter Landen Noske, Curtis, Robledo and senior Jace Light. Senior Jacob Preston also sees time.

Outside of last week’s regional semifinal outcome, the Eagles outscored playoff opponents 36-4, but Ramirez knows the competition will remain steady from this point forward.

“We have to be patient,” he cited as a key against Bridge City. “Arm-wise, their ace (Max Pachar) is not a power arm but he’s a guy who gets you to chase the pitches he wants — gets you to ground out and fly out. He’s really good at that, so we have to be patient and when we get guys on, just execute and get guys across.”

Ramirez added that he feels like a series that extends to three games would benefit his squad because of its depth.

“Obviously, the pitching has to continue to roll like it has been, but I feel like we have three guys as far as starters,” he said. “And whoever we get into a Game 3 with, I feel like the upper hand is for us because of Ethan Robledo and now Ryder Balmos, the freshman who has come in and really given us some good innings from the left side.”

Robledo and Balmos have combined to strike out 17 in 15 playoff innings.

The Cardinals went through Lufkin Hudson in a one-game affair then toppled Sour Lake Hardin-Jefferson and La Grange and feature a 5-1 playoff record to this point. Salado topped Robinson, Caldwell and Little Cypress-Mauriceville, respectively.

The winner of this series will face either Wimberley or Sinton in next week’s state semifinals.