The baseball team (15-12, 5-6 in district) will face Mesquite Poteet (8-18, 3-8) tonight at home at 7:30 p.m. in a must-win game that will greatly impact the fate of the team’s season.
“We need to win the last three games to get into playoffs,” sophomore Matt Piccirillo said. “The next games are the most important games of the year for us, and we really need to win against West Mesquite and sweep Royse City.”
The Leopards fell to the Pirates on Tuesday in a 10-9 loss, as the offense’s productivity wasn’t enough to support a struggling defensive effort. Junior Michael Difiore and senior Luke Stine hit back-to-back home runs late in the game to cut the deficit to one run, but Poteet’s pitcher struck out the following three hitters.
Nevertheless, the loss was attributed to the large deficit caused by weak defensive play, which allowed the Pirates to capitalize on Leopard errors.
“Our offense has done very well the past three games on scoring runs and getting people on base,” Piccirillo said. “On Friday, we are really trying to focus on the defensive side. We have scored enough runs to win games, but our defense and pitching haven’t been as good as possible. We are really trying to play a complete, all-around game to take the win.”
Head coach Jason Wilson said that he is looking to the bullpen for more support.
“Nine runs should be more than plenty to win a game,” Wilson said. “It will take much better pitching and defense. We need someone to get up on the mound and win the game for us, and that needs to happen in every game going forward.”
Senior Luke Howell also stressed the importance of a strong performance from the pitchers going into Friday’s game.
“We need our pitchers to come out and throw strikes and give our defense a chance to make plays because we can’t give them free runs from walks,” Howell said.
