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Baseball: St. Pierre's big night leads Flower Mound into area round (updated)
By Justin Thomas, jthomas@starlocalnews.com
COPPELL -- Starting pitcher Jake Elliot and Coppell's baseball team wanted no part of Flower Mound cleanup hitter Cody Gunter Friday, walking the Jaguar starting pitcher in each of his first three appearances at the plate, including twice intentionally.
Kyle St. Pierre made them pay.
The Flower Mound first baseman delivered a two-run double in the top of the first to get the Jaguars out to a solid start and later powered a two-run homer to left in the top of the fifth as the Jaguars completed a bi-district round sweep of Coppell with a 4-2 victory. Flower Mound won Game 1 on Thursday, 6-4.
"This was huge for us to not have to go to a Game 3. They're a great team over there. Coppell is outstanding. But we did enough tonight and last night to get two wins in two great games. They were classic games and it was a lot of fun and now we get to keep playing."
The win sends the Jaguars to the area round of the playoffs where they will face Mansfield. Flower Mound also exacted a measure of revenge in the win after the Jaguars were swept in the first round by the Cowboys last season.
Coppell, meanwhile, bows out in the bi-district round for just the second time in the past six years.
"Flower Mound is a solid club," said Kendall Clark, Coppell coach. "They have a lot of solid arms they can put on the mound and there is no let up when they make a change. I really think they have a chance to make a deep run and maybe even get to state."
Gunter picked up the win on the mound, firing 5.2 innings of six-hit baseball before giving way to Andrew Vinson in the bottom of the sixth. Gunter surrendered two runs (one earned) with seven strikeouts, including getting out a bases-loaded jam with one out in the bottom of the fifth.
Vinson entered in the sixth with a runner at second and two outs, recording the third out via strikeout before fanning a pair in the bottom of the seventh to secure the save. He had to work for it, however, surrendering a one-out single allowing Coppell's No. 3 hitter Craig Aikin to reach the plate as the tying run. But the Jaguars could breathe easy when Aikin's high-fly dropped into the glove of center fielder Connor Wanhanen.
"I think it really came down to Flower Mound getting the big hit and we didn't," Clark said. "And there are some breaks that come with that. They had the big homer that just got out with the wind blowing out. We come up a couple of innings later and hit one to deep center but the wind is blowing in then and knocks it down. That's what it can come down to sometimes."
Vinson also went 3-for-4 with a run at the plate, leading off with a double and scoring along with Gunter on St. Pierre's double down the third-base line in the top of the first. One pitch prior, St. Pierre drove a ball down the right-field line that landed just foul.
"Keeping Vinson off the bases was a big key for us," Clark said. "We knew he was talented and that was one of our main objectives. But that's easier said than done and he had a good series.
"He is also very tough as a closer. I think maybe if you had six or seven innings to see him, you can adjust and maybe start to hit him. But for just three batters, he is very tough."
Coppell responded with a run of its own in the bottom of the first. Tyler Jones opened the frame with a single and moved into scoring position on the subsequent at-bat when Tyler Zabojnik reached on an error. Aikin followed with an RBI on a grounder to cut the deficit to 2-1.
The Jaguars had scoring chances in the second and third as well, getting two runners on in both occasions, and had the leadoff man reach in five of the first six innings. However, Elliot evaded damage by recording five strikeouts in the two innings combined. He finished with nine strikeouts in a complete game effort.
The game was delayed for 30 minutes in the second inning because of lightning in the area. But the break in the action didn't throw Gunter off his game as he did not surrender a hit until a one-out single in the bottom of the fourth by Coppell's Jeremy Mortensen.
On Thursday, the Jaguars pulled out a 6-4 victory over the Cowboys.
Michael Wymer picked up the win for the Jaguars, defeating Coppell's Matt Delaney, who entered in relief for starter Connor Foltyn.
The Cowboys trailed early, 4-1, before rallying to even the score at 4-4. In the bottom of the sixth, Flower Mound had runners at second and third forcing the Cowboys to bring the infield in. "We had to get the run at the plate but bringing in the infield gave us less range," Clark said. "They hit a ball to the backhand side of our shortstop and it was a tough play. He kind of bobbled it a bit and had to rush the throw and they ended up scoring two runs off of it."
Coppell had gotten on the board by taking advantage of a Jaguar miscue as well.
"It can be a game of inches," Clark said. "But a lot of times it all evens out. I think this was one of those cases. It was a 4-4 game late that probably should have been 1-1."
While the Cowboys came up short in the playoffs, they still made strides in the first season under coach Clark.
"Flower Mound is a team that I think can make a run," Clark said. "A lot of time it just comes down to matchups. But we should have a good nucleus coming back and the experience and taste of the playoffs our younger players got should help. They'll get bigger and stronger over the next year and I think we should have another good group."
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