The Brazos Christian Eagles have built a baseball power with talented players who display a lot of heart, which at times were heavy this year.

Defending state champion Brazos Christian will play Bellville Faith Academy at 10 a.m. Friday at Waco ISD Field in the TAPPS Class A state semifinals.

The Eagles beat Huntsville's Alpha Omega Academy 12-3 in last year's state title game but graduated six seniors. Brazos Christian also lost its biggest fan, Leslie Yezak, who was killed in an auto accident last October. Yezak was Brazos Christian's principal and athletics director. He also was an assistant coach on the baseball team that included two of his sons, Ryan and John.

"The kids dedicated this season to him," Brazos Christian head baseball coach Rick Osborne said. "These guys all just loved him. We normally have an Eagle on the back of our caps, but this year we have Y. He was just a great, great man, and we miss him dearly. But we're just gonna go out and play as hard as we can for him."

That attitude, a few veterans and several newcomers were able to return the Eagles to the state tournament.

Brazos Christian got off to a slow start as two new starting pitchers and six position players got accustomed to varsity baseball. That coupled with a tougher nondistrict schedule contributed to Brazos Christian's 5-6 start.

Osborne was still pleased as the team's seniors -- pitcher/shortstop Mike Ford, first baseman Scott Rabroker and third baseman Jacob Davis -- helped the newcomers blend in.

"The guys who were there last year [at state] really have taken control, adding leadership to the younger guys," Osborne said.

And over time, the younger players blossomed into solid players, Osborne said.

"You have to remember, we did graduate six seniors, and they had some big shoes to fill," he said. "We had the MVP and some all-staters [graduate]."

The team started to jell just before district and has won eight of its last nine. During that run, Brazos Christian beat Alpha Omega 8-3 in a District 3-A playoff game to determine the title.

Brazos Christian and Alpha Omega could play for the eighth time in the last two seasons if they meet in the state championship at noon Saturday at Mary Hardin-Baylor. The Eagles stopped Alpha Omega's run of state titles at three last season.

NOTES -- Brazos Christian also won state in 2002 after being the runner-up in 2001. The Eagles will be moved to Class 2A next year, where they were from 2003-06. ... Osborne, who started the program, has led Brazos Christian to district titles in seven of eight seasons. ... Ryan Yezak is currently playing baseball at East Texas Baptist. He's hitting .322 with two home runs and seven RBIs in 22 games with 19 starts. ... Brazos Christian had 21 players try out, which allowed them to have a JV team. ... Ford leads the team in hitting at .574 followed by Rabroker (.467) and Davis (.407). Ford earned first-team all-state honors last year and Rabroker was on the second team. Jordan Lightfoot, a sophomore right-hander, will start against Bellville. He is 4-2 with a 2.75 earned run average. Brazos Christian's other starter is freshman right-hander Will Dunlap (5-2, 2.50) who had a complete-game 10 strikeout-performance in the playoff victory over Omega.

• Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.

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