On Wednesday, both the baseball and softball teams won their first-round play-in games to advance to the District 3A District 13 Tournaments.
Coyotes’ baseball dropped Springfield High 5-4 when the Yellow Jacket pitcher plunked Floyd Dodwell with the bases loaded.
The Coyotes found themselves trailing 4-2 going into the final frame. Two straight singles put Jaykub Roberts and Shaun Chumley on the basepaths. Braden Canaan then singled, scoring Roberts to bring the Coyotes to 4-3. The next batter, Dante Castro, reached on an error.
Chumley then scored on Nate Lucas’s sacrifice fly to center, tying the game at 4. Colton Lovelace was walked to reload the bases. Dodwell was then hit by the pitch to bring in the winning run.
Canaan went the distance on the mound, surrendering only one earned run as six Coyote errors led to the other three runs. Castro went 2-for-4 from the plate, driving in two runs, while Roberts went 2-for-3, scoring two runs.
The Coyotes next play on Thursday, May 4, against Clarksville High at CHS at 7 p.m.
The Lady Coyotes softball team had found success against Northeast’s Eagles all season. They had previously defeated their rivals 18-8 and 14-11. This time it only took five innings to polish off the Eagles.
At first, it didn’t look too promising, though. The Eagles led 4-0 in the bottom of the 2nd inning when the Coyotes stormed back with three runs, all with two outs. Serenity Halstead scored on two errors by the Eagles’ catcher, followed by three walks and a single by Alisha Audate.
The contest was tied at six in the bottom of the 4th inning when the Lady Coyotes exploded with six runs. One walk, two hit batters, two errors, a Savannah Wall double and Iyanna Conley triple blew the game open.
The Lady Coyotes added six more runs in the bottom of the 5th inning to evoke the run rule, ending the game. Aniyah Sims went 3-for-5 from the plate with two RBIs. Wall, Conley, Audrina Sanchez and Mackinsey Green all had two hits, while Serenity Halstead drove in four runs and scored four runs.
Pitcher Audate pitched a complete game, surrendering just three hits.
The Lady Coyotes advance to play host Clarksville High School on Thursday.
