By Alex Nicoll

Editor-in-Chief

@NicollMac

DALLAS – In a span of 20 minutes, the Coppell Cowboys turned its stagnant offense into a powerhouse. Against Fort Smith (Ark.) Southside, Coppell erupted for 10 runs and won by the fifth inning on a mercy rule, 10-0, at Highland Park on Saturday.

That 20 minutes came between the doubleheader for Coppell, who dropped the first game to Midland, 1-0. Cowboys coach Kendall Clark took his team over to the left field side and spent a majority of the time addressing issues the team had in the game, most of being offensive productivity.

“They don’t hit the first guy at all,” Clark said. “They’re just going through the motions, but the second game we changed the lineup, got guys who are hungry to play, and we did a lot better job and scored runs. That’s the bottomline.”

He challenged the team and they responded. In the bottom of the third inning, sophomore third baseman Austin Gross singled. Two outs later, junior center fielder Shane Steiger was hit by Southside junior pitcher Hunter Pogue. A wild pitch moved Steiger and Gross over into scoring position.

“We were definitely angry,” junior first baseman Marco Navarro said. “We had a more of a personal mindset in terms of proving that we were better hitters.”

That is when Navarro got his only hit of the day but in the form of a three-run home run that hit the left field foul pole. Coppell was up 3-0 going into the fourth.

“I actually thought it popped out foul to the left side,” Navarro said. “The umpire said it hit the foul pole but I just kept running.”

The bottom of the fourth saw all Coppell hitters get an at-bat as the entire order came around. Sophomore shortstop Jacob Nesbit started the barrage by singling in the leadoff position. Four Coppell batters recorded an RBI and Nesbit even came up to bat again in the inning, this time hitting a bases clearing triple of the center wall to score two more runs.

“We had momentum definitely,” Navarro said. “Our team really picked it up in the fourth [inning] and everybody did their job.”

At the end of the fourth, Coppell was in the lead 10-0. Sophomore pitcher Trey Becerra came on to pitch in the fifth inning, recorded one strikeout and finished out the game for Coppell.

“It’s easier to play with a lead than 0-0 or [being down] 1,” Clark said.

Great pitching by junior Hayden Kettler and Becerra stifled the Southside offense as they combine for a no-hitter. It was almost a perfect game but a wild pitch on a swinging third strike allowed Southside senior third baseman Christian Brasher to advance to first. Kettler forced a double play on the next play.

It was a nice change of pace for Coppell who had only scored one run its previous three games and seemed to be danger of dropping three games in the tournament.

Gross and Steiger finished with an RBI each and sophomore Campbell Shultz provided a two RBI double in the fourth as well.

Coppell’s bats the first game made Midland pitcher Brooks Betcher’s job easy on the day. Six times, a Cowboy struck out and many more times the team would get under pitches resulting in six flyouts on the day.

The Cowboys (8-2) next game is against district opponent Hurst LD Bell (7-2) at Coppell Middle School West on Tuesday at 7 p.m.