Hayden carpenter (Baseball, Southeastern Oklahoma State University) grew up in Magnolia. HelloNation asks student athletes one question about the place that raised them and records the answer on camera. This is Hayden carpenter’s, in full.
The question
Tell a story about a moment when your hometown came together or achieved something that made you proud.
The answer, as recorded
Transcript. What follows is a transcript of the video above, in Hayden carpenter’s own words. It has not been rewritten, and no part of it was drafted for them.
Hey y'all, Taten Carpenter here with Southeastern Oklahoma State Baseball and we are in Hot Springs, Arkansas for the GAC Tournament. And today I'm going to be talking about my hometown and how we came together to do something that made me very, very proud. So, 2023 rolls around and Magnolia West has never won a state title in anything. In my senior year, we had 13 people on varsity, 13 strong, that's what they called us. We went, we lost the first game of the season, went undefeated all the way to the last game of the regular season. So, I forgot what we were, but we were almost undefeated. Going into the playoffs, we're rolling where we're rolling. We lose the first game against Lake Creek in the regionals. And then we won the next two to go to state. For the first time in school history, Magnolia West has made it to a state playoff run. And state playoffs rolls around. We won the first game by like five or six. Our star pitcher, James Elwinger, goes six in and shut out with like 11 Ks. Like an amazing outing. One of the best in state history. And the next game we play Argonne, Texas. A school in Dallas that is probably about 100 times more populated and just better at every sport than us. But not this year. This year we ended up beating them 3-2. And it all came down to the bottom of the seventh where they almost had a chance to walk it off, but their guy winded out the center. And we won state. And it's the first time in school and in district history that 5A from Magnolia, Magnolia West, Lake Creek College Station area has won state. And since it was the first time in program history, we come back home to a parade. I'm talking the whole town was there celebrating our big win. And it was a really amazing sight to see where you don't, where you see someone in the crowd you don't even know having been spoke to and they're cheering for you for putting their, our town on the map again. And for our town to show up for us like that was just really amazing because it shows how much they care for sports and how high school people really impact our lives. Hayden Carpenter signing out. State champions. Let's roll.
Recorded by HelloNation as part of its athlete voices program and published by Hello Newswire, HelloNation’s good news newswire. The words are the speaker’s own.
Reported by Hello Newswire.