Last season, Rockwall-Heath, in just its fourth year as a program, came one step away from the Class 4A state baseball tournament before getting swept by Frisco Wakeland in a regional final series.

A rematch of that regional final almost materialized this year. But Mesquite Poteet first won a coin toss to play Wakeland last week in single-elimination regional semifinal game (rather than of a best-of-3 series), then won the game in TKO fashion, 10-2.

Instead, the 4A Region II final pairs two teams that, on paper, are very different.

Poteet’s emphasis on pitching and defense will be challenged by one of the best 3-4 hitting combinations in the state in Rockwall-Heath’s Jake Thompson and Jovan Hernandez.

Thompson and Hernandez almost beat Waxahachie by themselves in the regional semifinals, accounting for 13 of the team’s 16 runs in Rockwall-Heath's 2-1 series win.

Thompson, the team’s ace, also threw six innings in a 9-0 Game 1 victory then closed out the last two innings of Game 3.

Hernandez did not pitch in the regional semifinals for undisclosed reasons, but coach Greg Harvey said he would be available to pitch this weekend.

Poteet assistant Jeff Holmes agreed that the Thompson-Hernandez tandem was the greatest concern to Poteet going into the series.

“Thompson’s one of the best in the area -- might even be best in the state," Holmes said. "He can swing it real well as well. Jovan Hernandez is a pretty dynamic player also. He’s great defensively [at third base], he’s a good pitcher and he can swing just as good as Thompson if not better.”

Poteet doesn’t boast any great individual super talents like Thompson or Hernandez, but the Pirates have found success as a unit. The Pirates have six hitters batting over .300, including nine-hole hitter Javier Soltero, who put homered twice against Wakeland.

Poteet simply gets the job done at the plate, batting a combined .372 with runners in scoring position.

Neither coaching staff has decided what their rotation will look like for the Thursday-Saturday series at Duncanville High School, but Rockwall-Heath can bet it will see Poteet’s crafty left-hander Chad Young and power pitcher Blake Griffin.

Young earned his ninth win of the season against Wakeland, using a looping curve that ducked out of the strike zone to tempt errant swings.

Griffin closed the game down in the seventh and struck out the last batter for his team-leading 129^th K of the season.

“[Young and Griffin] are both very good and very capable of holding another team down,” Harvey said.

The Pirates are trying to advance to the state tournament for the first time since 2007, when they lost to Corpus Christi Moody, 9-1, in the 4A championship game.

The connections between that ’07 team and this year’s Pirates run deep, the greatest being that the ace for that ’07 Poteet squad, Teddy Nowell, is current catcher Beau Nowell’s older brother.

“They expect to be here and expect to win,” Harvey said. “They have a long-standing tradition of being a team that expects to go to the state championship every year.”