The baseball team (13-8, 3-2 in district) will travel to Forney tonight for a 7:30 p.m. game, where the Leopards will aim to avenge Monday night’s 7-2 loss versus the 2nd place Jackrabbits (10-8, 4-1)

“The plan going into Thursday is to come out and hit early and play solid defensively,” junior Jordan Yoder said.

After a two-run first inning with singles from juniors Yoder and Michael Difiore and a double from Luke Stine, the Leopards were held scoreless for the remainder of the game on Monday.

“We were very confident after the first inning and came into the game really strong,” Stine said. “Then we had a rough inning, and we lost our confidence, causing us to not score anymore runs.”

Forney has two senior pitchers, Jonathan Childress and Mason Englert, who are both committed to Texas A&M.

“[Childress] is a top pitcher that started slow and then settled in,” head coach Jason Wilson said. “He started throwing his fastball and slider for consistent strikes. He kept us off balance and got us to poor hitting counts and then took advantage. [It] was frustrating, but at the same time that is why he is a potential MLB draft pick and committed to A&M.”

The Jackrabbits were able to score five runs in the fifth inning that Wilson attributed to costly mistakes made by his defense.

“A bases loaded two-out error cost us three runs,” Wilson said. “We followed that up with another error that led to their fifth run. The outcome of the game could have been completely different if we did not make those mistakes.”
The team is looking to bounce back and hopefully even the series tonight.

“The plan going into [tonight’s] game is to tighten our defense up and get our bats hot against another good pitcher,” Stine said.