By Alex Nicoll

Sports Writer

The great thing about rivalries is that the outcome is always a surprise. A whole season can go by where one team dominates and when the next season can be the total opposite. Hopefully next season, Coppell will be the former.

For the Cowboys this year Flower Mound has been the one team that has been unbeatable. Across two district games, Coppell has lost to the Jaguars 8-2 and 4-2. And then there is last night where the Cowboys lost 2-1 in an nine-inning showdown.

In last district game against them, the Cowboys hoped to reverse their poor performances, more than that their pride.

“We [were] most looking for a chance of redemption,” senior catcher Hollis Rogers said. “Coming back, playing our own game, our own style, scoring more runs against them, and facing a new pitcher.”

One of the many struggles for the Cowboys is the number of errors committed. In the first game against Flower Mound, the team had four errors and then two errors in the previous game. In the last match-up in district, their woes continued giving up two errors.

“We [had] to be strong defensively, we cannot make the errors that cause unearned runs for our pitchers,” Rogers said. “We [had] to back up our pitchers.”

Besides improving their defense, the team needs to provide more run stability for their pitchers. In the team’s opinion the Jaguars are their biggest obstacle.

“It’s been their pitching staff,” Rogers said. “I do not think they have a best player. I think that we have a better team. We just have to put forth the effort and not make the little mistakes.”

The Cowboys were hoping a new arm will benefit them.

It didn’t.

Junior Seth Jordan has held the Cowboys to two runs each game and only 15 combined hits, but pitcher Kyle Johnston ended up being the winning pitcher against Coppell. That is not to say the team has not had some success against him.

In the first game seniors Matt Delaney, Jeremy Mortensen and Trevor Inman each had doubles. Mortensen also had a triple in that game. The second game exhibited Coppell’s power when Delaney and junior Drew Hanson had solo shots against Jordan.

That still did not stop Flower mound from posting 12 runs across two games against senior pitcher Austin Gardner. He is playing extremely well this season with his only two losses against the Jaguars.

Coppell had a strong chance of knocking off Flower Mound and giving it its first district loss of the season.

Mortensen ended up losing this last match-up with the Jaguars.

Cramer dominates different aspect of game

In the previous notebook, senior Jackson Cramer was atop the leaderboards in Dallas-Fort Worth area Class 5A batting averages but as his position slipped outside the top five his run production went up.

Cramer ranks second in RBIs with 35 with a two RBI lead over Arlington Martin sophomore Josh Watson.

The first baseman trails Colleyville Heritage senior outfielder Cody Thomas by one in the RBI race. Cramer is in good company with Thomas, the home run leader and is at the top of the batting averages list.

Cramer is a consistent player that produces runs an opportunities for Coppell and his actual paper stats show that.