By Alex Nicoll
Editor-in-Chief
@NicollMac
After finishing as the last seed in District 7-6A, Southlake Carroll will get another crack at Coppell after being swept by the Cowboys during district play.
Coppell and Carroll will see each other again in the Class 6A regional quarterfinal best-of-three series, with Game 1 tonight at 7 p.m. at Argyle High School.
“It’s going to be a very tough, hard-fought series,” Coppell coach Kendall Clark said. “[Carroll] is swinging the bats better than they were when we played them earlier.”
In Carroll’s previous area series against Plano West, it outscored the Wolves 24-11 in three games, including a 15-2 win to win the series.
“There first four or five guys are swinging the bat well right now, so we’re going to have to make quality pitches. You make good pitches you’re going to get them out, if you don’t it’s going to hurt us,” Clark said.
Coppell will throw senior pitcher Jensen Elliott in Game 1 and junior pitcher Charles King in Friday’s Game 2. If a third game is needed on Saturday, Clark has yet to name a starting pitcher. Some candidates include senior pitcher Joseph Goetze who has been a solid performer all year or junior Hayden Kettler who plays first base for the Cowboys usually.
Elliott and King both pitched against Marcus in last week’s series and dominated the Marauder’s in the two-game series. Elliott walked away with the first win after throwing a two-hit shutout and finished with eight strikeouts. King went five innings deep, giving up two runs on five hits with a walk and five strikeouts.
For Coppell pitching should not be the problem. Hitting is another story. Against Marcus in both games, Coppell only recorded 11 hits. However the team does have eight players who are batting over .300, with sophomores Campbell Schultz (.429), Jacob Nesbit (.356) and Trey Becerra (.350) leading the way.
“For us it’s selecting and hitting good pitches,” Clark said. “Our hitters can hit them, they just need to be selective and swing at the correct pitch.”
The winner of this series will face the winner of Arlington Martin-Abilene next week.
Game 2 is 7 p.m. tomorrow at Argyle. If necessary, Game 3 is 3 p.m. Saturday in Prosper.
Why is the game all the way in Argyle?
“Fieldturf,” Clark said. “With all this rain in the forecast, we were looking for a field that was all turf.”
