The Cleburne Yellow Jackets accomplished just about everything possible in Texas high school baseball during the regular season, but that chapter of their 2018 story ends as the postseason now begins. After going 30-1-1 in the regular season, claiming an undefeated District 9-5A title and being ranked No. 1 in Class 5A throughout the season, the Jackets open what they hope will be a deep playoff run with a bidistrict showdown against Mansfield Lake Ridge. “I feel good that we’re a good, solid baseball team,” Cleburne Coach Ross Taylor said. “We can swing it 1 through 9 and we’ve got good pitching and good catching. We’re one of those teams that’s supposed to be up there. But now it’s about showing up and not thinking the season’s over because we’ve accomplished so much so early. There’s still bigger things left out there that we want to accomplish.” Despite all of Cleburne’s success to this point — and there’s been plenty of it — the way the Jackets ultimately feel about their 2018 campaign will rely on what happens from here on out. And it begins with a one-game playoff Friday at Mansfield Lake Ridge (11-11). You read that right — the No. 1 team in Class 5A and District 9-5A champion has to open the playoffs on the road in a do-or-die one-game series. Cleburne lost the flips to Lake Ridge on the type of series (best-of-three or one game) and location (flip for home site). Faced with that task, Taylor said the Jackets need to approach their playoff opener as business as usual, which has worked this season — 26 consecutive wins evidence of that. “I think the mindset for us is to keep doing what we do,” Taylor said. “Our pitchers have to throw strikes. We’ve got to make the routine plays. And somebody’s got to get on base and we’ve got to get them in scoring position then have somebody clutch up. That doesn’t change. The only thing that changes is the intensity level coming out of the bleachers and how well you handle that.” After being thoroughly dominant through a stretch of district play, winning nine consecutive games by at least six runs, the Jackets received strong tests from Granbury (a 7-3 win in eight innings) and Joshua (a 4-3 win) in the final week of regular-season play. “The intensity levels at Joshua and Granbury were playoff-type atmospheres,” Taylor said. “I think they were trying to establish that, ‘Hey, we’re playoff teams, too.’ And both of them played us really well and played us hard. “We’ve had that target on our back. ... For us, it’s about going out and taking care of what you can take care of, and I don’t know how well we’ve done that the past week.” Cleburne clinched the District 9-5A title and No. 1 playoff seed with two games to spare, and a dip in focus at times is human nature, Taylor said. But now that the page turns to the playoffs, the Jackets’ skipper said he expects an increase in focus. “I’m going to hope that there’s a regrouping and a refocusing,” he said. “I hope that everybody gets back on board with, ‘This is where we said we wanted to end this thing, and it’s way down the road from where we are now.” The Jackets have received stellar pitching from ace Willie Rangel and No. 2 starter Landon Cody, with Coy Sims being solid as a reliever. Aside from a few errors over the last couple of games, Cleburne’s defense has played at a consistently high rate all season. And the Jacket offense averaged 9.1 runs per game throughout the season. Lake Ridge is led by Stephen F. Austin State University signee and ace pitcher Brandon Uhse. “Uhse is supposed to be their big guy,” Taylor said. “He averages over a strikeout an inning. He’s committed to Stephen F. Austin. He’s a mid-80 guy. I know in one place they say he’s 90 and in some other places they say he’s mid-80s. There’s different reports out there. “But we’ve seen it all at this point. We’ve seen guys in the 90’s, we’ve seen guys in the mid-80’s, we’ve seen the slow ones. When you’re winning, everybody’s looking for that formula in what is it that gives us the most problems. So we’ve seen just about every kind of pitcher there is to see. It’s still about making adjustments, and who adjusts the fastest normally wins at this point. Uhse is also one of Lake Ridge’s top threats offensively along with Luke Potter and Kyle Mosley. “Again, Uhse is their big guy; he’s their 3-hole hitter,” Taylor said. “They’ve got a couple of guys in the high-.300’s. Overall they’re a .280- , .290-hitting team. They’ve got three guys that really can hurt you and they’re right in the middle of the order. They’ve hit some home runs right there. So we’re going to have to be concerned about that and be cognitive of the fact that those guys are capable of hitting the ball a long way. “They like to run and they like to hit and run. I think the key to that is your pitcher’s got to do a decent job and obviously your catcher needs to throw somebody out early. But I think for us it’s about getting back to the little things defensively and getting back to the fundamental part of it.” When asked what the Jackets need to do to give themselves their best chance at a win, Taylor’s response was simple: “Play like the Cleburne Yellow Jackets.” While the game is scheduled to be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Lake Ridge, if the Eagles’ field isn’t playable due to expected weather, it will be moved to Cleburne. And if the weather postpones the game Friday night, it will be moved to noon Saturday in Cleburne. The winner of Cleburne and Lake Ridge will advance to the area playoffs against the winner of Dallas Wilson and Dallas Samuell.