Cougars throw 4-5A into deadlock

By LANCE FLEMING
Sports Writer

For six innings the Cooper Cougars were dominated; for one inning they were dominating.

And that one inning - a six-run seventh - was enough to lift the Cougars to a come-from-behind 7-6 victory over Abilene High Monday afternoon at Blackburn Field.
The win lifts the Cougars into a first-place tie with the Eagles atop the District 4-5A baseball standings. Both teams share 5-2 marks in league play, and both have important games today.

Cooper will host Midland High at Cougar Field, while the Eagles face a tough road game at Midland Lee.

Through the first six innings, the Eagles played like a team ready to take a 1 1/2-game lead over second-place San Angelo Central, a two-game lead over Cooper and Midland Lee and inch ever closer to its first playoff berth in 24 seasons.

AHS starting pitcher John Dallies was cruising, the Eagle defense had made just about every play and the offense had put up six runs and 12 hits on a pair of Cooper pitchers.
But the wheels came off for the Eagles in the top of the seventh when the Cougars began to piece together their rally.

A tiring Dallies, who had pitched brilliantly through the first six innings, walked James Rose to lead off the seventh. He then gave up a double to Kyle Wellhausen that would have given Cooper runners at second and third if AHS rightfielder Chris Cortinaz hadn't made an errant throw to second base. That error allowed Rose to score and Wellhausen to scamper to third base.

Clete Seyle then followed with a single that scored Wellhausen to make the score 6-3.
With no outs, the Cougars had narrowed the lead to 6-3, had a runner on base and had the top of the order coming up.

"As soon as we got it to 6-3 with no outs, I thought we had a chance," CHS head coach Jim Mavroulis said. "But even then it depended on some guys getting hits who hadn't done that in a while. Fortunately we got them."

Cooper leadoff hitter Scott Harrison then walked, and that was all for Dallies, who left after giving up five runs through six-plus innings. AHS head coach Jim Reese then brought in sophomore righthander Heath Saling, who pitched three-hit baseball in last Tuesday's 20-0 win over Odessa High.

But after retiring the first man he faced, Saling gave up a two-run ground-rule double to Miles Durham to make the score 6-5. That double broke a 1 for 11 slump that Durham had been mired in since returning three games ago from a severely sprained ankle.

John David Estes then followed with his third hit of the day - a hard shot past third baseman Ryan King - that brought Durham in from second with the game-tying run.
"After we started putting some hits together I started getting the feeling that we might be able to pull it out," Estes said. "We just dug down deep in the seventh."

Saling left the game after giving up the single to Estes in favor of Justin Reese, who hit Cory Aldridge and then struck out Craft Hughes for the second out. But he gave up a single to Rose that scored courtesy runner Nathan Stedham with the go-ahead - and eventual game-winning - run.

Cooper pitcher Darin Janssen, who picked up the victory in relief, set the Eagles down in order to seal the win.

"What a great victory for our guys," Mavroulis said. "John Dallies pitched a great game, but we battled all day. Now, though, our guys know that they can reach down and gut it up and win a game like that."

The loss was a gut-wrenching one for the Eagles, who could have taken a giant step toward the post-season. A win would have given them a 6-1 mark and home games left against Central and an OHS team they obliterated last week.

Now, though, the Eagles must regroup and forgot about losing a game they had in hand for most of the day.

"Three weeks from now, this game won't be the important issue," Coach Reese said. "The issue is going to be what we do from here on out. It's an old phrase, but it's gut-check time, and maybe that's what this team needs."

The Eagles had everything they could have wanted through the first six frames.
After Rose gave the Cougars a 1-0 lead with his district-leading fourth homer in the second, Dallies settled into a nice groove that saw him retire 14 of the 16 batters he faced between the end of the second and the sixth innings.

At one point he retired 10 straight Cougars, three via the strikeout, three on groundouts and four on flyouts.

"I keep saying this, but Dallies pitched a great game against us," Mavroulis said. "He wasn't trying to blow it by us; he was pitching. He's not just a thrower anymore, he's a pitcher, and that's what makes him tough."

While Dallies was settling down and setting down Cougars, the Abilene High offense went to work against CHS starting pitcher Kristian Allen.

Trailing 1-0 the Eagles scored a pair of unearned runs in the third to take the lead. Ryan King - who reached on an error by CHS shortstop Craft Hughes - and Justin Reese both scored on a Jeff Byrd double to left-centerfield.

The Eagles held on to that tenuous one-run advantage until the fifth when they put up three more runs.

With one out and a man on second, John Lackey, the district's leading hitter, doubled to drive in John Michael Herrera for a 3-1 AHS lead. Cortinaz then reached on an error by Seyle to give the Eagles runners at second and third with one out. That was all for Allen, who left in favor of Janssen.

But Janssen immediately gave up back-to-back RBI singles by Brad Cowling and Jacob Martinez to make it a 5-1 game.

The Eagles got another run in the sixth inning when Lackey singled home courtesy runner Andrew Roy.

However, the Cougars would strike back with a fury in the seventh, leading them to the win and a tie atop 4-5A.

"That's great, and I told the guys to enjoy it for a few minutes," Mavroulis said. "But we've got another important game (today) that we have to win. This win (Monday) will lose some of its luster if we lose against Midland High."