Cavaliers' talents taking them to state

LAKE TRAVIS, Texas (KXAN) - Singing the national anthem before a baseball game is as big of a tradition as the game itself, but for the Cavaliers, they’ve turned it into something more.

“A lot of teams, I don’t know whether they sing the national anthem,” coach Roy Kinnan said. “We sing the national anthem as a team.”

“I was singing the national anthem for our team, they all wanted to support me while I was singing, so they just sort of sang in the background,” senior pitcher Ryan Peters said. “It wasn’t very loud or anything, but by the time we got through, we were like, ‘That’s kind of cool.’”

This weekend, Lake Travis will get to sing together for at least one more game when the Cavs make their first ever appearance in the state tournament.

“That’s what these seniors talked about,” Kinnan said. “About three weeks ago, they talked about wanting to be the first team. We’ve had some very good baseball teams, and for this team to be the one that gets there makes it special.”

“We’re pretty strong in baseball every year, but we just could never get over that hump. But, finally, we got over it,” said senior third baseman Grant Akroyd.

Getting to the state tournament is even more satisfying after beating Boerne Champion, the same school that eliminated the Cavs from the playoffs last year.

“I think the rivalry’s there cause we beat them in 2010 and we lost to them in 2011, so it feels good to just beat them and finally make it to the state tournament,” Senior pitcher Phillip Orr said.

With all the state titles Lake Travis has won this year, baseball now has a chance to make its own history

“I think it’s one of our main motivators,” Orr said. “Seeing volleyball win it, football win it and golf even winning it, we just really want to do it ourselves.”

Winning the school’s first state championship in baseball, now that’d be something to sing about.