After a tremendous postseason run and solid district season, the Burton Panther baseball team collected seven all-district selections with four more honorable mentions in the District 26-2A all-district team.

Rueben Rodriguez, Tyler Witt, Eli Jaeger and Ryder Biggs all earned first-team all-district selections while Brady Griffin, Logun Tosta and Braydon Martin earned second-team honors.

Rodriguez, Witt and Biggs all recorded 12 hits in district play to share the team lead. Biggs had the best average with a 12-of-25 mark in district play, driving in 10 runs and earning five doubles.

Rodriguez earned his 12 district hits in 29 at bats with nine singles, a double and two triples. He drove in eight runs and scored eight times during Burton’s 10-game District 26-2A slate.

Witt went 12 for 26 at the plate against district opponents with eight singles as well as a double, triple and the team’s only home run of the district season against Snook.

Witt and Jaeger also served as Burton’s key pitchers throughout the district season. The sophomores typically shared the starts in each two-game week and had plenty of success on the mound.

Jaeger led the Panthers with a 1.05 earned run average in district play, striking out 23 batters with just five walks allowed. Only three of the 10 runs district opponents scored against him were earned with 21 runners left on base.

Witt, meanwhile, showcased even better strikeout ability with 39 strikeouts compared to just seven walks allowed in district play. He allowed four earned runs in 20.2 innings of work in district play and showcased efficiency with nine innings under 13 pitches, nine 1-2-3 innings and 11 innings of getting the first two batters out.

Tosta, Martin and Griffin all had their moments in district play with respectable averages at the plate.

Tosta went 8 for 25 in district play with seven singles and a triple. He earned two of his eight RBI against Milano on April 17 while bringing home three runs on March 25 against Snook.

Martin also earned a multi-hit game on April 17 as part of a 8-of-23 district hitting mark with two RBI and three runs scored. All eight district hits were singles with additional multi-hit efforts coming on March 11 against Iola and on April 1 against Mumford.

Martin also served as Burton’s catcher, letting only eight passed balls go by in the district slate.

Griffin earned a single and a triple in the April 17 game against Milano, giving the Panthers their only triple of a 14-1 win that helped put Burton as the district’s top seed in the Class 2A Division II playoff bracket. He tallied five hits in 20 at bats with five RBI in district play.

Houston Hodde, Coy Gurka, Isaac Matthies and Archer Fuller earned honorable mention all-district status after a season where the Panthers finished third in District 26-2A.

Witt, Jaeger, Fuller, Gurka, Hodde and Matthies also earned academic all-district honors. They are joined on the academic all-district list by Mark Odom, Matt Roemer and Ashton Fuller.

After district play ended, Burton went on its deepest postseason run since 1987 with a regional championship. Standout efforts against Flatonia in a three-game series and Shiner in an upset sweep of the Comanches guided the Panthers to the state semifinals, where it lost a hard-fought three-game series against Overton last week.

Originally published on brenhambanner.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.