By Alex Nicoll
Editor-in-Chief
@NicollMac
“Our goal was undefeated,” junior designated hitter Marco Navarro said.
While these goals could have come true for the nationally-ranked Cowboys after starting off with an impressive 6-0 start, Coppell fell short to Rockwall-Heath, 3-0. This loss came after a win earlier in the day to Rowlett High School, 1-0.
On the first day of the Scotland Yard tournament, Coppell faced some of Texas’s best in Heath pitcher Tyler Ivey. The senior pitcher dominated the game striking out six and only walking two on the day.
“I knew it would be very difficult,” Coppell baseball coach Kendall Clark said. “When you play them with [Ivey] pitching, you can’t really give you anything. We had some good at-bats, more than what the scorecard showed. It was encouraging because that is a front line pitcher and that is what we are going to see against Southlake and in the playoffs are those type pitchers.”
Coppell only had four hits on the day but fought off multiple pitches, which resulted in two walks, three batters being hit by pitches and many full counts.
One of the bright spots of the day was Navarro, who went 2-3 with a double on the day.
“[Ivey] followed the same pattern throughout the game, so I was just looking inside and making sure I got good barrell on [the ball],” Navarro said.
Heath’s offense got rolling in the top of the second with a leadoff triple followed by a single. Two errors later, Heath had a runner on third with no outs but junior first baseman Hayden Kettler single-handedly turned a double play and senior pitcher Jensen Elliott striked out the next batter to escape the inning allowing only one run.
Elliott lasted three more batters before being pulled in favor of junior pitcher Chris Burdine after surrendering two more runs and another costly error.
“Usually when they’re not sharp, the next time they are and Tuesday’s game is much more important than today,” Clark said.
Tuesday’s matchup is against Hurst L.D. Bell High School at Coppell in the first District 7-6A matchup of the season.
Coppell’s defense struggled, giving up five errors, three of which came off of pick-off attempts. While costly, the Cowboys kept trying because its part of their game plan, according to Clark.
“We are going to keep practicing them and doing them because they’ll win you a game down the road,” Clark said. “Just cause you shoot 12 percent on three pointers in a game doesn’t mean you stop shooting them, so we’re going to keep working on them.”
Coppell has two more games on Friday and two more on Saturday. Hopefully, it can correct its problems by then to get back on track.
“We’ll just go back and work like we did for all the other games,” Navarro said.
Coppell beats Rowlett 1-0 in pitching duel
Senior pitcher Joseph Goetze dominated on the mound Thursday with a complete game shutout. He struck out nine and gave up only one hit in Coppell’s 1-0 win.
“[Goetze] pitched a great game and kept us in there,” Clark said.
While defense was the problem in the latter game, batting was an even bigger issue in the first game. Coppell did not record its first hit until the fifth inning when sophomore designated hitter Trey Becerra reached on an infield single.
After a sacrifice bunt by junior left fielder Shane Steiger, sophomore call-up Campbell Shultz pinch-hit Becerra across the plate on another single to give Coppell the lead.
“He has been tearing it up playing with JV Red and smoking the baseball down there,” Clark said. “You got bring a hot bat up and he’s still hot.”
