Wylie fends off Abilene Cooper for third straight softball victory

Wylie softball coach Heather Collier has been preaching to her team about playing relaxed and loose.

She might be preaching to the choir now that the Lady Bulldogs have won three straight games to close out the first half of District 4-5A play.

That third win came at the expense of Southtown rival Cooper on the Lady Cougars’ home field.

Reese Farrar went 4-for-4 with three RBIs, and Rylee Moore scattered six hits as Wylie downed Cooper 6-4 on Tuesday at Cougar Diamond.

Mycala Reed also homered and scored twice as the Lady Bulldogs improved to 14-6 overall and 3-2 in league play. Wylie is tied with Lubbock-Cooper for third. The Lady Pirates beat front-running Lubbock Coronado 14-6 on Tuesday.

Wylie scored a run in both the sixth and seventh to give Moore a 6-4 advantage, and it loomed big when Karrigan Parrott led off the seventh with a home run. But the Lady Bulldogs held on for the victory.

“That was big to give Rylee a little confidence on the mound coming into the bottom of the seventh to relax,” Collier said.

It was another tough loss for the Lady Coogs (12-7, 1-4), who were coming off a 7-4 loss to Lubbock Coronado on Friday at Cougar Diamond. Coronado scored four runs in the 10th to win that game, and Lubbock Monterey scored four runs in the seventh to beat Cooper 8-6 on March 25 in Lubbock.

“That’s three tough ones for us,” Cooper coach Stacy Herring said.

Cooper's lone win was a 10-0 decision at last-place Lubbock High after the Monterey loss. So, the Lady Coogs have lost two straight.

This is a Cooper team with seven returning starters from last year’s 27-10 region semifinalist team. Yet after contending for a district title last year, the Lady Coogs go into the second half of district facing an uphill battle to make the playoffs.

“We’ve just got to string some hits together, and we just haven’t been hitting as well this year as we did last year,” Herring said. “We’ve got to fix that.”

Lady Bulldogs start fast

Reed staked Wylie to a 1-0 lead with a booming two-out homer to center in the third inning.

The Lady Bulldogs pushed their lead 2-0 as Halli Russell scored on a one-out error in the fourth. She was running for Jadyn Fernandez, who reached on an error. Russell took second on Ryliegh Whitehead’s sacrifice bunt, and Farrar followed with a single. Farrar got caught between first and second but ended up being safe at second while Russell scored on a throwing error.

Cooper tied the game in the bottom of the fourth. Kaleigha Kemp reached on a two-base error and scored on Summer Simmons’ triple off the fence in left center. Simmons scored on Ciera Newman’s fielder’s choice ground ball.

Farrar broke the tie with a two-out, two-run single in the fifth. The Lady Bulldogs loaded the bases ahead of Farrar. Reed had a one-out single, and Fernandez beat out an infield hit. The crusher for Cooper came when Whitehead struck out swinging but reached on a wild pitch. That set the stage for Farrar.

Cooper pulled within a run as Jahlissah Marquez tripled and scored on Aliyah Martinez’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning.

But Kat Martinez led off the sixth with a single and scored on an error, and Farrar added a two-out, RBI double in the seventh for a 6-3 lead.

“One inning, it felt like we had four or five outs,” Herring said. “All we had to do was tag a runner or step on the bag. Several of those innings, I felt like we were fighting against ourselves instead of taking care of the three outs that we need. We’ve got to pull together as a team. We’ve got to refocus.”

Parrott led off the bottom of the seventh with a homer, and Lynette Aguilar followed with a walk.

It appeared the Lady Coogs had something going when it appeared Marquez reached on an error. But the base umpire ruled the catch and force was made before the first baseman lost the ball when Marquez brushed past the glove, dislodging the ball while running down the line. Aguilar also had to return to second.

“It could have gone either way, depending on how you call it,” Herring said. “It’s a judgement call. They said she had possession – she already had the out. But when she went to the bag, the ball came loose. It could have gone either way on that.”

Otherwise, Cooper would have had runners at first and third with no outs in a two-run game.

Instead, Moore got two ground balls to end the game.

Responding to pressure

Collier was pleased with her team’s ability to answer every time Cooper scored.

“I like how deep in the count we were going, the adjustments we were making,” Collier said. “They were just relaxed. I liked to see they were confident.”

Moore struck out seven and walked two in going all seven innings.

She got a big lift from Farrar, who also is a starting pitcher. Farrar threw a three-hitter in 3-2 win over Lubbock-Cooper on March 30, and Moore had three hits and run in that game.

“It’s like they both pick each other up when they’re on the mound, and that’s crucial,” Collier said.

Marquez took the loss for Cooper. She gave up four runs on four hits. She struck out two and walked one. Simmons, Cooper’s starter, allowed two runs on three hits in four innings. She walked one.

It was a big win to wrap up the first half of district play for Wylie.

“At this point, it’s who’s going to be who executes and who’s going to make the minimal amount of mistakes in a district as good as ours,” Collier said. “So, we just need to keep building on it and build on the confidence, and let’s see where it takes us.”

Conversely, Cooper faces a tough task with three of the Lady Coogs’ final five games coming on the road, beginning Friday at Lubbock-Cooper. The Lady Pirates won the first meeting 7-1 in Abilene.

“We’re going to have to pull it out and really play hard ball the rest of the season,” Herring said. “Last year, some of the seniors that graduated, they were in the lineup in such a position that they helped us pull out some of these close ones. Last year, they were the ones who got these runs in for us. We’ve got to find that spark, that umph, that key.”

Herring said her team must pull together and play as one to get that done.

“You can’t win if you’re playing with a bunch of individuals,” Herring said. “They’ve got to pull together as a team. So, we’ll see.”

Joey D. Richards covers Abilene high schools and colleges, Big Country schools and other local sports. Follow him at Twitter at ARN_Joey. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.

DISTRICT 4-5A

Wylie 6, Cooper 4

Wylie … 001 … 121 … 1 – 6 … 7 … 3

Cooper … 000 … 210 … 1 – 4 … 6 … 4

Rylee Moore and Cameron Gregory. Summer Simmons, Jahlissah Marquez and Angelina Arriaga. W – Moore. L – Marquez. 2B – Wylie: Reese Farrar; Cooper: Arriaga. 3B – Cooper: Simmons. HR – Wylie: Mycala Reed; Cooper: Karrigan Parrott.

Records – Wylie 14-6, 3-2; Cooper 12-7, 1-4.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Wylie beat Abilene Cooper for its third straight 4-5A softball victory