If you follow the Hendrickson High baseball team closely you probably have the feeling this year’s Hawks squad will go as far as the left arm of Trevor Seidenberger will carry them. And you also know that might be a very long way indeed.

Seidenberger has been on a bit of a tear of late. He no-hit Lake Travis and followed that performance up with a one-hit shutout of Killeen. On the year he is 6-0 with a 1.17 earned run average while striking out 61 hitters in 36 innings pitched.

His performance against Killeen was especially dominating as has struck out 13 of the 16 hitters he faced.

“I felt good. I had the team behind me to back me up. The team put the runs on the board. I located my pitches and the whole team shut them down.

Just one start earlier, Seidenberger dominated Lake Travis, throwing a no-hitter.

“I thought going in, I just want to beat these guys. I wanted to put them down and make them feel the pain they have made every other team feel the past three years. The team helped a lot. We hit when we needed to.”

However, Seidenberger is no one-trick pony. In fact, he is third on the Hawks in batting average hitting at a .453 clip. He has 14 RBIs and 13 runs scored as well. In his third year on the Hawks’ varsity, Seidenberger feels everything has finally come together for him.

“The past four years I’ve been thinking I need to go out and pitch my game and not let the other team take control,” he said. “My thought process is I want to beat (whoever we are playing) and that’s been my thought process all along.”

As one of the six Hawks returning from last year’s region quarterfinalist squad, Seidenberger knew when the year began he would have to step up.

“We lost two guys who are now playing in college, one of them a good hitter the other a good pitcher and we lost plenty of other good athletes,” he said. “We had six returning varsity players and we have kept it going. The whole year we’ve been hitting the ball and we have to do that to keep rolling along.”

Earlier this year Seidenberger announced he would pitch for Blinn College in Brenham next year. While he had plenty of chances to go to a bigger school, he said Blinn was the best place for him to start his college career.

“The school was right for me,” he said. “It has a lot of tradition. I talked to 13 Division I schools but I felt Blinn was the right choice. I can get through my first year and see what it’s like. They have a good team and good coaches down there.”

Seidenberger began playing baseball when he was 3 years old and the sport quickly became a huge part of his life.

“My dad picked up the bat and put it in my hands and I’ve been playing ever since,” he said. “I’ve been playing with two of the guys on the team (Patrick Burris and Todd Foster) my whole life.”

He said the chance to play every day with his two life-long friends has made this year even more special.

“It’s been fun,” he said. “We grew up into it. Their dads have coached me. It’s been a fun ride the whole time. I’m sure we’ll all miss each other.”

He said his favorite part of playing is simply being on the field.

“Being able to get on the diamond,” he said. “Instead of going out and doing other things I get to be on the field every Tuesday and Friday night playing the game I love.”

With the beginning of the playoffs right around the corner, Seidenberger is confident this year’s team has what it takes to make the deepest of playoff runs.

“We want to make it to playoffs,” he said. This year I feel like we’ll go all the way to state. I really feel like if we keep on top of our game we’ll make it there.”