Select team wins tourney at TCU

By Sam Waller

The Fort Worth Cats select baseball team wrapped up its season Sunday, July 9 by winning the Five Tool Baseball tournament at TCU’s Lupton Stadium in Fort Worth.

Albany’s Cole Read played a big part in the Cats’ 8-7 win over Lonestar Baseball Club of Austin in the championship game, going 2 for 3 with two RBIs.

Read, who will be a senior at Albany this fall, has handled multiple roles for the -Lions. He was named District 8-2A Catcher of the Year this season in addition to being a key piece of Albany’s pitching staff.

Read played in 17 select-team games after Albany’s season ended in the regional semifinals, making four tournament appearances with the Cats.

“We just finished five straight weekends,” Justin Read, Cole’s father, said.

For the summer, Read batted .359 in 17 games. In seven pitching appearances, including two starts, he was 2-0 with a 2.01 ERA over 20 innings.

This is the third summer Read has played for the Cats, which includes players from Jacksboro, Bowie, Brock, Holliday, and Iowa Park.

The team regularly played teams made up of players from Class 5A and  6A schools. Lonestar Baseball Club boasted nine players who have committed to Division I college programs.

“There were even teams from Hawaii at this tournament,” Justin Read said.

The Cats went 1-0-2 in the Five Tool pool play before winning both bracket games. Read was named the Cats’ player of the game in both bracket games. In the semifinals, he went 2 for 2 and played catcher, then played third base in the championship game. He pitched in a pool game and played second base in another game.