Southlake Carroll baseball coach records 500th career win

By Jarret Johnson

jmjohnson@star-telegram.com

Southlake Carroll coach Larry Hughes tallied his 500th career victory Tuesday with the Dragons’ 8-0 victory over Justin Northwest.

Hughes has spent the past 17 seasons of his 27-year career at Carroll after stops at Cedar Hill and Dallas Jefferson.

“Actually the one that really means a lot more to me is 400 wins at Carroll, which is I don’t how many more it’s going to take, maybe seven or eight more,” Hughes said. “Being in one place for awhile, is kind of a meaningful thing to me, the 500 wins is not that big of a deal -- just a number. Everybody keeps hounding me about it though.”

It might not take Hughes too long to get his 400th win with the Dragons. Carroll (16-5, 4-0 in District 4-5A), the No. 4 in the latest Class 5A poll by the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association. Tuesday marked the second consecutive shutout for the Dragons, who in seven days routed three district opponents by a combined score of 24-2.

Despite the huge run differential, two of Carroll’s four district wins have come in extra innings.

“We’ve scored 13 runs in the eighth inning in two district games,” Hughes said. “We just got to get them earlier in the game. There’s some really outstanding pitchers in this district, some 90 mile hour throwers, which is tough for high school kids to square up and hit. Hopefully we can kind of get our offense on track.”

Summit sluggers

To say the Mansfield Summit lineup is on fire would be an understatement. The Jaguars (12-8 overall, 3-1 in District 15-4A) have scored 42 runs in the last three district contests -- victories over Arlington Seguin, Mansfield Lake Ridge and Red Oak.

“It’s just one of those things where one guy starts hitting and then the next guy starts hitting, until it starts carrying up and down the lineup,” Summit coach Chris Peacock said. “I think the biggest difference from earlier in the season to where we’re at right now is we are starting to get some production all the way up and down our lineup, we’re not having to count on just one or two guys.”

Nobody has been as hot as pitcher/first baseman Corey Pickens, who batted .750, belted three homers and drove in seven runs in wins over Lake Ridge and Red Oak. Overall, Pickens is batting .476 with six home runs, 29 RBI and is 4-0 on the mound this season.

“He’s always had the ability, he’s really just come into this year and really been swinging the bat,” Peacock said. “He’s been aggressive and he never gets himself out. He’s got a really good eye at the plate, he’s really disciplined and he’s made some good adjustments to be really successful.”

Great start

Grapevine sits atop the District 6-5A standings after a 3-0 start to league play, with impressive victories against fellow traditional heavyweights Hurst L.D. Bell and Colleyville Heritage.

The Mustangs (12-6 overall) opened 6-5A play with a 5-0 win over Bell on Mar. 12, followed by a 10-1 rout of rival Heritage last Friday. Grapevine narrowly avoided a letdown on Tuesday by edging Irving 1-0.

“I feel like you have to deserve success, you have to deserve to win and these guys, just based on their attitude, they are deserving of the success they are having right now,” said Tim McCune, who has been at Grapevine 25 years and is in his 24th season as head baseball coach. “We’ve done nothing so far, we have 11 district games left and we’ve got a lot of baseball ahead of us. We’ve got our work cut out for us each and every day.”

Calling all coaches

Area coaches are encouraged to report statistics each Sunday to sportszone@star-telegram.com. Stats to report include individual games played, at-bats, total hits, doubles, triples, homers, runs scored, RBI and stolen bases. Individual pitching stats include won-loss records, ERA (with innings pitched) and strikeouts (with innings pitched). Please also report your team batting average, ERA and records.

Jarret Johnson, 817-390-7760

Twitter: @JohnsonJarret

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