St. Thomas Coach Craig Biggio
Congratulations to Coach Craig Biggio and my old alma mater, the St. Thomas Eagles!
For the second straight year, the Eagles have taken home the State of Texas TAPPS Class 5A state championship. They did it Friday afternoon at Waco ISD’s Veterans Field with a 4-3 win over Bishop Lynch of Dallas. It was a victory that saw the Eagles battling through a windy day and a 4-3 edge from the third inning forward. After the coach’s younger of two player sons, Cavan Biggio, launched a deep drive in the bottom of the third that bounced off the glove of Bishop Lynch left fielder Lucas Wearden and over the fence for a 4-3 lead, the Eagles protected that early lead for the final score of their big championship haul.
In irony, or simply in tribute to the St. Thomas Biggio family edge, it had been Craig Biggio’s other son, Conor Biggio, that homered a day earlier to give the Eagles a preceding 4-3 semi-final win over Argyle Liberty Christian that placed them in the championship match.
St. Thomas played the final game as the home team, getting off to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. After Harrison Ayala and Conor Biggio drew game-opening walks, shortstop Patrick Leonard, a transfer student from Florida playing his first year in Houston, then plated everyone with a blast to left field. The Bishop Lynch Friars then jumped on St. Thomas starter Michael Rodgers for three runs on four hits in the top of the third. Cavan Biggio’s decisive blow then came about in the bottom of the same frame.
Eric Jensen took over on the mound for St. Thomas in the sixth after Rodgers gave up back to back hits. Jensen shut down the Friars the rest of the way on only one hit, chalking up four strikeouts in the process.
The St. Thomas Eagles state title was their 22nd since they started keeping records of same in 1953. It was the second straight title under Head Coach Craig Biggio and the second one in his three seasons as “The Hall of Fame Mentor on Memorial Drive.”
Our hats off to you, Coach Biggio, as well as to the 2011 state champion St. Thomas Eagles!
Eagle alums especially are quite proud of what you guys have done over the three years of your tenure with the Toms – and we wish to thank you, Coach Biggio, for full-bore embracing and embodying the St. Thomas High School motto: “Teach me goodness, discipline, and knowledge.” Once again, you have been just the right teacher and role model for a situation that both required and anticipated that kind of outcome.
The Biggio blessing is a plural one. – St. Thomas High School, the Houston Astros, the Sunshine Kids, and the entire Houston community are the beneficiaries of the presence of you and your entire family in our town. Thanks for being one of us at a high level of aspiration for everyone else. Many of us Houstonians also look forward to the some-year-soon summer afternoon we get to hear you speak in person on the lawn of that little rustic place of baseball dreams up there in Cooperstown, New York. What a grand day that will be.
Tags: Baseball, Craig Biggio, St. Thomas High School in Houston
The Pecan Park Eagle 
May 14, 2011 at 4:47 pm |
Swoop Swoop to the HIGH FLYING EAGLES.