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Eagle eyed: Prosper nudges Lovejoy back in race for 11-3A title
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@starlocalnews.com
By this point of the season, the Lovejoy baseball team has grown accustomed to enjoying its latest district championship and prepping for the eventual playoff run.
The latter is most certainly in play with one game left on the 11-3A schedule, but any hopes of a district title may have been washed away Tuesday night in a 7-5 loss to Prosper.
"It's tough, but the kids are still working hard," said Brooke Court, Lovejoy head coach. "We're still focused and we'll get through it together and get back on track."
"We've seen it happen in between where we'll have a good game and then a bad one as far as defense is concerned," Court said. "It's something we're working on and we just need to get back in that groove of throwing strikes and making the plays behind the pitchers."
The defensive woes kept Prosper afloat and innings alive.
Inevitably, the runs followed with the Eagles getting on the board with two runs in the first after a series of Lovejoy errors with two outs. That same process repeated itself in the fifth frame, with Prosper parlaying another Leopards error into three runs.
Lovejoy had to manufacture its runs the traditional way, relying on nine hits to amass its five runs. Junior Tanner DeVinny posted a double and single in the loss, with multi-hit games also chipped in by juniors Taylor Neitsch and Tom Campbell. The Eagles countered with extra base hits from Lance Brooks and Torii Hunter Jr., with Brian Green notching the victory on the bump while Lovejoy senior Zach Hobgood was saddled with the defeat.
The loss marked Lovejoy's third setback in five games after opening district 4-0 with wins over Frisco Lone Star (6-2), Princeton (12-2), Nevada Community (10-0) and Prosper (10-6).
The Leopards' second run through 11-3A hasn't been as fortuitous with losses to Farmersville (1-0) and Princeton (5-4) prior to Tuesday's defeat.
Entering the evening gridlocked with Farmersville and Prosper atop the standings, the Leopards now sit one game back of both with one left in the regular season. Lovejoy hosts Farmersville at 7:30 p.m. Friday with a chance to draw even in the standings.
At that same time, the Eagles host Lone Star and should the Rangers score the upset, a Lovejoy win would create a three-way tie to close out the regular season.
"We've got to be able to approach that adversity in the right way," Court said. "I think we're still in a good spot and they believe in each other; we're just trying to get through this together and move onto the playoffs."
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