Texas Panhandle Baseball Stars Shine in All-State Selections

The baseball scene in Amarillo has continuously grown over the four and a half years I've lived here. When we first arrived, the youth scene was good, but not great. There weren’t many teams for our kids to try out for.

That has completely changed over the course of the last four years, and the reason is that many more kids are stepping onto the diamond.

Travel Team Explosion In Amarillo

I remember when we first started playing here, there were maybe 5-7 teams based out of Amarillo in each age group. Now, it's seemingly a minimum of ten teams per age group, so finding a team to play on isn't difficult.

However, each one of those teams has kids who are extremely talented, and many of those are moving on to play high school baseball.

Teens Earn All-State Honors In Texas

Four Amarillo-area high schools made deep runs in the state playoffs, with West Plains, Amarillo High, Gruver, and Nazareth all making it to the regional semifinals, and those teams found some of their players on the All-State list.

Specifically from those schools, West Plains shortstop Ethan Bentley found himself on the honorable mention list for 4A. Stephen Cowan of Gruver landed himself a spot on the second-team all-state at second base for 2A. Over in 1A, Breck Proctor of Nazareth found himself on the list. He played multiple positions at the school, but the writers recognized him for his outfield prowess.

Eleven More Texas Panhandle Players Make All-State

Just because their teams didn't make as deep a run in the playoffs doesn't mean there aren't others. In fact, 11 more made the list of All-State selections, and they're listed below:

Class 5A Honorable Mention: Austin Sluder - OF - Amarillo High
Class 4A Second-Team: Tell Bryant - 1B - Hereford High
Class 4A Third-Team: Jacob Burris - OF - Canyon High
Class 4A Third-Team: Carson Allen - SS - Canyon High
Class 4A Honorable Mention: Max Neff - C - Pampa High
Class 4A Honorable Mention: Noah Zamora - 2B - Hereford High
Class 4A Honorable Mention: Andrew Bellino - OF - Canyon High
Class 3A Honorable Mention: Kevin Rios - SS - Dalhart High
Class 3A Honorable Mention: Max Rodriguez - OF - Bushland High
Class 3A Honorable Mention: Colton Reynolds - OF - Bushland High
Class 2A All-State: Luke Grajeda - SS - Sunray High