CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Flour Bluff ISD celebrated their Grand Slam Celebration, recognizing baseball and softball's field upgrades from the 2025 bond. The Hornets joined the Coastal Bend majority by adding turf fields and leaving a legacy for future Hornets.
"Things are taught and learned out here on these fields that you can't teach and learn in a classroom, so they're vital for the development of young people to become good citizens," said Flour Bluff Superintendent Christ Steinbruck. "Just excited to celebrate with our community."
The field upgrades include new dugouts, a bullpen and a batting facility shared by both baseball and softball. Each team's turf has the Flour Bluff logo in center field.
"It means a lot. I think the community coming together for us and the baseball team really shows how tight knit our community is," said Flour Bluff baseball senior outfielder Bradley Smith. "Just that we can get the bond to pay for all of these nice things, the nice field, the new scoreboard and the dugouts. I think it really how much of a community and how everyone is together."
The updates were much needed for both programs that made playoffs last season.
"When we had dirt it was a lot harder because when we would go away more than half of them are turf, so we didn't know how the bounces were going to be. Now we're prepared," said Flour Bluff softball junior pitcher and outfielder Kenzi O'Brien. "My favorite part is how this year is kind of like a whole brand new team and we're already working together so well. We have great chemistry and we're doing amazing, so I'm really happy to see what's next."
For taxpayers who are wonder how much water this part of proposition B will save, Steinbruck has the answer.
"Hopefully we're going to save on the maintenance and operations," Steinbruck said. "Don't have to fertilize and mow the fields. Then at the time during the bond program, when the committee was considering this project, we weren't in the crisis that we are now with water. We will save between 700,000 to 1 million gallons a year of water not having to water the field. It was a combination of our well water that we have and city water, but we're going to save a significant amount of water with what we're dealing with in our city today. It's a huge bonus for our community."
In UIL District 29-5A baseball, Flour Bluff secured the season sweep over Alice on Tuesday after shutting the Coyotes out 7-0. The Hornets also won on Friday 3-0.
Benjamin Terry threw a shutout, dealing 7 strikeouts, while only allowing 3 hits through 7 innings pitched. Flour Bluff amassed 9 hits in the game. The Hornets scored 4 runs in the third inning on a Brayden Vancini RBI double, Jay Johnson RBI single and Benjamin Terry 2-run homer. However, it was Colten Englert's RBI double in the bottom of the first that got the Hornets on the board.
In UIL District 29-5A softball, Flour Bluff outscored King 11-1 on Tuesday. The Lady Hornets currently sit third in the district standings. Sarah Morris led Flour Bluff by driving in 4 runs on 3 hits, including a 2 RBI double and a 2-run homer.
Flour Bluff jumped out to a lead in the bottom of the first when Addison Mayo hit an RBI single, Morris doubled, Sidney Gerlach grounded out for an RBI and Delaiah Black hit an RBI single.
Lady Hornets starting pitcher Kenzie O'Brien dealt 3 strikeouts and allowed 1 run and 4 walks through 2.2 innings. Abigail Bippert came in relief and struck out 2 batters and allowed only 2 hits through 2.1 innings.
