FRANKLIN, Texas – The NB Thunder baseball team defeated Grace Academy, 19-3, in a three-inning, mercy-rule clobbering to claim the 2025 TAIAO Division II State Championship at the Franklin Ranch Community Park on Friday.


The Thunder (18-9) cruised through the two-day tournament, racking up four wins and outscoring their opponents 46-3 en route to their first state championship.


“It was an honor to coach such a hard-working and selfless group of athletes,” head coach Jim Miller said. “They married and developed the resiliency to play with some of the best teams in the state on any level.”


In only its second season of competition, the Thunder baseball team rode its pitching staff to dominate the six-team Division II contest.  NBT hurlers shut out their first three opponents of the tourney before surrendering their first run to Grace Academy in the title game.  For the tournament, the staff went 4-0 with four complete games.


“Playing four or five games in two days is going to stretch any team’s pitching staff,” Miller said. “Having quality starting pitching is key to being able to compete for any championship. As the old adage goes, ‘Pitching wins championships.’ It certainly did this week.”


In pool play on Thursday, Declan Campbell and Dawson Posey powered the Thunder to a 16-0 win over BVCHEA and a 4-0 triumph over Midland Texas Leadership, respectively.  The Black and Teal finished atop the pool and earned a first-round bye in Friday’s bracket play with Manny Fuentes, the Thunder ace, still available to pitch.


Fuentes was golden in Friday’s opener, a rematch against Midland.  He gave up just a single hit and fanned 13 batters without a walk over six innings to tally the Thunder’s third straight complete game shutout and send his team to the title bout.


Payce Taylor got the nod to start in the crown contest and picked up the win with a solid performance.  He was helped by an offensive explosion in the bottom of the first that gave the Thunder a comfortable lead and culminated with 19 runs over three innings.


Posey led the boom, driving in six runs on two hits, all in the first inning.  He finished the tournament with seven RBI, and Paxton Lerma notched an .818 OBP.


For the tournament, the Thunder posted an impressive .500 batting average, a .676 OBP, 34 hits, 43 runs, 0.93 team ERA, and three shutouts.


“While we had great individual performances over the four games of the tournament, our real strength was that the entire team played like champions,” Miller said of the team that finished the year 18-9 in his inaugural season.


The crown is the first high school state title for Thunder by any team.  The volleyball program picked up two national championships in 2023, and the football program won an unofficial and undisputed state title in the middle school ranks last fall.