Dawg baseball stays alive with sweep of Killeen
By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press
KILLEEN – The Copperas Cove Bulldawgs’ playoff chance looked to be on the verge of extinction after Killeen took a two-run lead in the third inning and juiced the bases with no outs in the fifth inning.
Copperas Cove junior pitcher Josh Ropple had other plans.
The righty on in relief for junior starter Jaylen Smith threw two strikeouts and forced a groundout to end the threat in the bottom of the fifth inning before sparking a three-run rally with a leadoff single in the top of the sixth inning.
“I just needed to throw strikes and let my defense do some work,” said Ropple. “It just so happened I was hitting my spots really well and I got a couple strikeouts and then the big rollover.”
Head coach Dusty Brittain liked what he saw from his reliever after the Kangaroos knocked out the starter Smith and reliever Tyler Ingram.
“He did a great job,” said Brittain. Coming through with those three outs with the bases loaded was big so hats off to him. We struggled a little bit on the mound and they hit the ball as well as anybody has hit Jaylen. For Josh to come in and be effective was big.”
Both teams managed to juice the bases in the first inning but managed to get out of the inning without damage.
The Roos got on the scoreboard in the second inning when Devonte Garrett connected on a two-out double and Jake Escalante single to put Garrett at third. He then scored on a wild pitch to take a 1-0 lead for the Roos.
The Bulldawgs quickly answered when sophomore Michael Goudeau scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of sophomore Colby Jost.
The Dawgs again found themselves in a hole after a two-run bottom half of the third. A two-out walk by Marcus Clater put a runner on for Julian Jasmin’s RBI double to left field. Garrett then followed with another RBI double to plate Jasmin for a 3-1 Killeen lead.
A pair of singles by Cedric Camacho and Monquaverus Wingfield gave Cove base runners with no outs in the top of the fourth but a groundout and two fly outs kept them at bay.
However, the Dawgs were able to take advantage of base runners with no outs two innings later.
A leadoff single by Ropple was followed by another single by Camacho and an RBI single by Cam Petet.
“I started off the inning and was just looking to put a ball in play,” said Ropple. “On this infield if you hit it on the ground, it comes up on you quick. I was just trying to put the ball in play and do something good with it. I hit the ball hard and he bobbled it.”
Cove knotted the game on an RBI groundout by Peyton Fox before scoring the go-ahead run on an RBI single by Michael Goudeau.
The Roos threatened in the bottom of the sixth with a walk by Jared Jones and Josh Barnett was plunked by a pitch to put two on with one out. Back-to-back fly outs, however, ended the threat.
Ropple then sat down the side in order in the seventh to secure the win. The win puts the Bulldawgs (12-12, 6-6 in District 8-6A) in a three-way tie for the final playoff spot with Ellison and Belton. The Dawgs will battle Belton (6-6) in a two game series beginning tonight and the Eagles (6-6) will finish with two games against Midway (9-3). A sweep by Cove and one loss by Ellison would ensure a spot for Cove but they would still have a chance with a Midway sweep or split and a split aganst Belton.
“Against good teams like Belton you can’t miss those opportunities,” said Brittain. “It’s all going to be about us and our execution. If we can go do what we’re supposed to do, we have a chance against anybody.
“We have to play good in all phases. We’ve got to pitch well, play good defense and make routine plays. The bottom line is we have to come through with those big execution plays. We had opportunities early in this game where if we could just hit a ground ball, we’d score a run and we didn’t get it done early.”