The Coppell baseball team has been in the same position time and time again. In its second game against Flower Mound Marcus, they were down by two runs. Friday night against Flower Mound, they were down two runs two runs. Saturday against Marcus, they were down two runs again. 

Each and every time, the Cowboys have come back to win the game. 

“That’s the name of competitive sports in my mind,” Coppell coach Ryan Howard said. “If you’re going to be a championship caliber team then you’re going to have to deal through adversity. Things don’t always go your way and you’re not always going to feel great. That’s why I always tell my boys, ‘it’s not about how great you are when feeling great and when everything is going your way, it’s about how good can you be and how can you help the team when things aren’t going well’ so we’re a tough team, we’re a selfless team and I’m really proud of the culture we built here.”

In this case, Coppell roared back with five runs in the fourth inning to seal the comeback against Marcus, the state’s second best team, in a tiebreaker game. The Cowboys defeated the Marauders, 9-6, in their best offensive game in almost a month on Saturday afternoon at Coppell ISD Baseball/Softball Complex to clinch the first seed in District 6-6A.

Coppell faces McKinney Boyd in the Class 6A Region I bi-district playoffs in a best-of-three series. Game 1 is 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Boyd, with Game 2 at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Coppell ISD Baseball/Softball Complex. If necessary, Game 3 is Saturday at Lake Dallas, with time to be determined. 

Marcus (23-6-2,) singled, walked and scored on an error to start off the game with senior Landry Fee on the mound for the Cowboys. After a strikeout, the Marauders scored again on a ground out. Within the first inning, the Cowboys looked to be in the same position as the last time they played Marcus as they were in a two-run hole early on.

“The first inning was rough; we had a lot of bad breaks with balls bouncing off the turf and I didn’t have my best stuff today too,” Fee said. “It was just something that we had to battle through and we knew that we’re a tough team. We got down 2-0 last night against Flower Mound and came back so we knew we were going to come back at some point, we just had to get the bats going and they did.” 

Coppell (21-6-1) didn’t let that affect it however.

In the bottom of the third, senior right fielder Will Boylan was walked and a sac bunt  by senior center fielder Carter Fields allowed Boylan to advance to second. Junior shortstop TJ Pompey flew out to right field but Boylan scored after tagging up to half the deficit. 

In the bottom of the fourth, senior third baseman Walker Polk hit a ground ball to shortstop and reached first on an error. With one out, junior second baseman Tanner Sever walked and senior catcher Bradley Castillo was hit by a pitch, loading the bases for the Cowboys. Junior first baseman Andrew Schultz was walked, scoring Polk in the process to knot the game at twos.

Boylan struckout and, with two outs, Fields reached first on a catcher’s interference, scoring Sever in the process to give Coppell the lead. Pompey was walked and junior courtesy runner Zack Darkoch (in for Castillo) scored. Then, with two outs, senior left fielder Andrew Nester singled on a fly ball to right field, scoring Schultz and Fields as the Cowboys to a 6-2 lead. 

“With five in the fourth, we haven’t had a big inning like that in a while and it was great to have,” Fee said. “We went a little quiet there offensively, getting a lot of low scoring wins in districts so our pitching and defense had to show out. In the playoffs, we’re going to need our bats to come around and they did last night and, with nine runs today, our bats are trending up just like our whole team is. That’s awesome and just what we need going into the playoffs. 

Marcus used three pitchers in the fourth inning.

Marcus didn’t back down, however. In the top of the fifth, the Marauders walked and subsequently reached first on an error. Two sacrifice groundouts later and Marcus cut the Cowboys’ lead to 6-4.

The Cowboys responded in the fifth as Castillo singled on a line drive to left field with two outs. Schultz doubled on a line drive to left field to drive in junior courtesy runner Matthew Willaims (in for Castillo) as Coppell took a 7-4 lead.

In the bottom of the sixth, Fields walked and Nester walked after Pompey flew out. Fields scored on a passed ball and Polk flew out to center field, allowing Nester to score after tagging up.

Marcus changed the pitcher once again after Fields scored.

Just as it looked to be over, Marcus roared back with a two-run homer from senior center fielder Jake Duer cut the Cowboys’ lead to three runs with one out. Schultz worked himself out of the jam with a strikeout and inducing a ground out to end the game and claim the first seed in District 6-6A.

Coppell scattered four hits while Duer had two of the Marauder’s three hits. Both teams committed two errors.

Marcus’s four pitchers combined to surrender four hits, allowing nine runs, striking out five and walking four.

Coppell’s duo of Fee and Schultz combined to surrender three hits, allowing six runs, striking out four and walking four.

“We came ready because we know they are a good team,” Schultz said. “We knew that the pitching was going to be good so we needed to focus on hitting the ball on the ground and scoring a lot of runs which we did.”

The win marks the first time since a 10-5 win against Lake Dallas on March 5 where the Cowboys have scored nine or more runs. With the Class 6A playoffs starting, the performance was just what Howard wanted to boost the confidence of his hitters.

“This is a big win for us,” Howard said. “Our bats are starting to get going at the right time. I’m really proud of the at-bats we’re having. We’ve been able to pitch and play defense at an elite level all year and it’s pretty exciting to see some hard work in the cages pay off and some of the guys who have struggled a little bit offensively handle through some adversity and it starts working out for them here.”

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