PORT NECHES, Texas — Last Friday Port Neches-Groves picked up a huge district win over state-ranked Crosby. The Indian baseball team walked-off the Cougars, 5-4 in nine innings.
The win not only got PNG a step closer to their twenty-fifth straight playoff appearance, it also gave head coach Scott carter his 600th career win.
Carter got his start in Louisiana where he won a pair of State titles before heading to the Lone Star State where he led Sweeny to a State Tournament appearance in 2012.
Then in 2017 he led the PNG Indians to their first baseball State Championship.
Monday afternoon he reflected on what those 600 wins mean.
"It's one of those things Ashly, you know it's always a pleasure to sit down and talk with you, but in this case right here it kind of validated how old I am. It validated longevity. I've been doing this long time, thirty-three years as a head coach. Thirty-six years in the business. I got to thinking, I think as soon as the moment hit that we got the last out or the last hit, it was actually a walk-off so we got the hit that scored the winning run and I knew it was six hundred. Everybody started yelling, my wife came out with some numbers and I think the first thing that started going through my mind was just a million memories."
Those memories included many faces from the past.
"I was thinking about all the assistant coaches, all the players, all the families, all the parents, everybody that's had a part of this along the way and there's been a lot of people that had to do with this six hundred. But nobody more than my family. You know they've been there for all six hundred, so it was pretty special."
Port Neches-Groves will continue district play this week against defending 5A State Champion Barbers Hill.