Panthers try to cling to final playoff spot

The Colleyville Heritage baseball team rebounded from a one-run loss to L.D. Bell last Tuesday to defeat the Blue Raiders 6-3 on Friday night, and with a grip on the fourth-place position in the standings, coach Alan McDougal said his team is going to need to turn it up in its remaining district games.

The Panthers hosted Southlake Carroll on Tuesday after the press deadline and will square off with the Dragons at 7 p.m. on April 17 in Southlake. See www.dfwvarsity.com for results.

“Carroll is what they are,” McDougal said. “I expect their best. We’re going to get out there and just see how things go from there.”

McDougal said that the split-series effort against L.D. Bell was a good one, but added that his team could have been 2-0 last week without a few untimely mishaps.

“We went to eight (innings) against Bell in the first game, and gave up two in the bottom of the eighth to come up on the short end,” McDougal said. “That was a little frustrating. But then we came back and swung the bats pretty well in the game at Colleyville on Friday. We scored six runs in the first two innings and then held on to win the game. So it was good.”

McDougal said he did have a couple of standout performances in the games against L.D. Bell as well.

“Griffin Tolle and Logan Knowles really hit the ball well in both games,” McDougal said. “And then Michael Stanford had four innings in a spot performance that was good.”

With more than half of district under its belt, McDougal said that things could be better for his team as the playoffs loom in the not-so-distant future.

“We’re a little frustrated with where we are sitting right now, but we’ve got a big week with Southlake Carroll this week, and we just have to see how that goes for us,” McDougal said. “It we can take some games from Southlake, we’ll be in a really good position.

“I think that all you’re really asking for is a chance to perform well and look toward the postseason, and that is where we are right now.”

In order to have a long run into the playoffs, McDougal said that he believes it will take a couple of different things from his players.

“We’ve been trying to get better all year, and we have to do that,” McDougal said. “We’re just trying give our guys a chance to put some runs up and see what happens from there. It’s good to be at this point in the season and still have a chance to make the playoffs.”

This story was originally published April 13, 2015 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Panthers try to cling to final playoff spot."