Dragons heat up for last grab at playoff berth

Just when it appeared that the Carroll baseball team might be sitting at home during the playoffs this year, the Dragons put forward the kind of complete game effort coach Larry Hughes has been looking for since the start of district.

Carroll defeated Colleyville Heritage by a score of 6-0 last Tuesday in a game in which Hughes said his team was firing on all cylinders, and the coach said he is looking forward to seeing his team finish things out strong.

“Matt Canterino got the win and pitched six innings of two-hit ball,” Hughes said. “He had a no-hitter going into the fifth, and he had 13 strikeouts in the game. We hit the ball pretty hard. We scored three runs in the first inning.

“Zach Farrar had two doubles in the game. Brian Bellamy had an RBI double, as well. I think we had four doubles total. We hit the ball hard, knocked in some runs and pitched well.”

Carroll will square off with Haltom twice this week, and Hughes said that he is expecting a good series from the Buffaloes and said he believes his team will have its work cut out for it.

“Haltom has played most teams really, really close,” Hughes said. “Richland is up there near the top, and I think they went to extra innings and ended up beating Haltom. I think their other losses have been by one or two runs as well, so Haltom is not a bad team.

“Haltom has always been good at baseball. If you don't come to play against Haltom, they can beat you. You have to go and play good baseball there.”

The Dragons had won three of their last four games heading into to a Monday night make-up game with Colleyville Heritage, and Hughes said this has been a different year for his team from years past.

“We got off to a slow start, because we faced the three toughest teams to start district and lost some one-run games in there,” Hughes said. “We had some chances to win those games, and then it would be a different story. So we are kind of battling our way back into things after starting slow. As long as we score three or four runs, we're usually in pretty good shape.”

Carroll and Haltom will play at 7 p.m. on Friday at Haltom High School.

This story was originally published April 20, 2015 at 3:47 PM with the headline "Dragons heat up for last grab at playoff berth."