In baseball, one inning game change a game that could change the course of a season. For the Coppell baseball team, this fate could come true after a messy fifth inning led to a 3-2 loss to the McKinney Boyd Broncos in game 1 of a best-of-three Class 6A Region 1 area playoff series at Coppell ISD Baseball/Softball Complex on Thursday night.

Game 2 is tonight at 7:30 p.m. at McKinney Boyd, with the Cowboys need a win to force Game 3 at 4 p.m. tomorrow at Plano West.

The top of the fifth inning began with Coppell junior pitcher John Kodros hitting the first batter he faced and walking the following batter after shutting out Boyd through four innings.

Senior pitcher Ray Gaither came in relief to attempt and get the Cowboys out of the jam with a runner on first and second with no outs. Two passed balls led to a run scored and a runner on third with still none out. On the following pitch, Gaither balked and the game was tied at 2. Again, the following batter walked with no outs in the fifth.

“We have to throw strikes, not wild pitches, and not walk them,” Coppell coach Kendall Clark said. “We have to make them earn their way around.”

Gaither was then replaced by senior pitcher Chris Burdine. Burdine’s first pitch was a passed ball, and then he struck out the hitter, but a passed ball on the third strike allowed Boyd to have runners at the corners in a tie game. The Bronco batter bunted the game’s winning run home, giving Boyd the 3-2 lead in the fifth.

“They scored three runs and they didn’t have have to swing the bat,” Clark said. “We can’t do that and win.”

The Cowboys game plan for Friday to be a revival of sorts.

“[We need to ] load the busses with good attitudes and go to McKinney and get a W,” Coppell junior shortstop Jacob Nesbit said.