Final chance. Down to the final strike.
Flower Mound Marcus senior pitcher Braden Gullick stood on the mound with both teams’ seasons hanging in the air. The tying runs stood on base as the crowd was on its feet, yelling words of encouragement while senior Dillon Slaton stepped into the batter’s box. A base hit could keep the Coppell baseball team’s season alive.
He wound up, and let the ball fly.
Slaton made contact, but the call came in as foul for strike three, and just like that, the Cowboys’ season ended in a 5-3 loss to Marcus on Friday at Coppell ISD Baseball/Softball Complex. The loss eliminates the Cowboys from playoff contention while Marcus secures the final berth from District 5-6A.
Coppell had controlled most of the night. Senior pitcher Jackson Floren set the tone early, working through innings and keeping Marcus off the board. By the bottom of the fifth, the Cowboys held a 2-0 lead.
But the seventh inning changed everything. Marcus broke through for five runs in the top half, flipping the game and forcing Coppell into a late push.
Coppell coach Armando Garza said the team never backed down, even when things started to slip.
“I credit these boys so much with the amount of fight that they never gave up,” Garza said. “They pushed it to the very, very end.”
And they did. Coppell answered in the bottom of the seventh, putting runners on and cutting into the deficit. Senior Cason Broom reached the base to keep the inning alive, and suddenly the pressure shifted back to Marcus.
Still, Gullick held on. A strikeout of Floren for the second out brought the game down to its final moment, and the next pitch sealed it on a foul ball for a strike.
Just like that, the season the Cowboys had built came to an end.
With a group of 17 seniors that had spent years building toward this point, the loss marks their final high school game.
“I wouldn’t say it was bittersweet at all,” Garza said. “It’s absolutely bitter. These boys have been working their butts off for four years. This is one of the better teams I’ve been a part of.”
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