February 20, 2010
College Station, TX.

The Coppell Cowgirls made their annual trip to the Bryan Varsity Tournament and placed 3rd out of 40 teams.

Thursday in the first game against College Park the Cowgirls jumped to a 1- 0 lead in the top of the 2nd. Marisa Malazzo singled to lead off the inning, advanced to 2nd on a fielder’s choice and scored on a double by Kelsey Latta. The 1-0 lead stood up until the bottom of the fourth when College Park evened up the score with a lead-off solo home run from their college bound catcher. Coppell scored the final and deciding run of the game in the 6th when Trish Van Winkle singled to lead off the inning and scored the go ahead run on back to back singles from Amber Clifford and Sarah Whitehead. Pitcher Laura Ramos relieved starting pitcher Peyton Mosley in the 6th to earn the save while shutting down College Park in the final two innings. The cowgirls advanced to face Clear Brook on Friday morning.

Friday morning’s game against Clear Brook would prove to be a classic pitcher’s duel with Laura Ramos on the mound for the Cowgirls. Although the Cowgirls had base runners in each of the 8 innings, we were never able to capitalize on our offensive rallies. Ramos and the near perfect Cowgirl defense would prove to have the answer to any Clear Brook rallies. The game would eventually stay scoreless through 7 innings going into the 8th under ITB rules. The Cowgirls second batter Tricia Van Winkle walked yielding our second base runner and with two outs, Sarah Whitehead stepped up with a clutch double to left center scoring both runners. Clear Brook did not score in the bottom of the inning ending the game with a Cowgirl 2-0 victory. Laura Ramos pitched the 8 inning shutout earning the win! The Cowgirls would now face fellow 2 – 0 Alvin in the afternoon game.

The Cowgirls now face fellow 2 – 0 opponent Alvin. In this game, pitching and defense would again have a huge influence on the outcome. Peyton Mosley was on the mound for the Cowgirls. The game remained scoreless until the 4th when both teams put a run on the board. Alvin would get two infield hits (their only hits of the game) leading to their game tying run. Catcher Rachel Forshaw, who scored our first run on a single by Marisa Malazzo, would be the catalyst for the Cowgirl offense with a triple off the fence and a double in her first two at bats. Yet another pitcher’s duel would proceed to 8th inning ITB with the score tied 1 – 1. In possibly the most bizarre play of the tournament, Coppell scored their run with Morgan Stabell running for Shelby Van Maanen. Stabell scored from second on an errant throw from Alvin 3rd baseman on a fielded bunt. The third baseman caught our attempted bunt in the air and threw to an unoccupied 2nd base attempting the double play. With the ball in center field, Stabell streaked around third sliding home while barely eluding the tag and scoring the winning run. Alvin would not score in the bottom of the 8th . Mosley recorded the complete game victory for the Cowgirls. The Cowgirls advance to Bryan High School field for Saturday’s pairings as one of only four undefeated teams along with Ft Bend Clements, Austin SF, and Houston Bellaire.

Saturday morning against Ft Bend Clements proved to be another tight game for the Cowgirls. Both 3 – 0 teams featured great pitching and strong defense. Laura Ramos was on the hill for the Cowgirls and pitched a “gem” of a game scattering 3 hits over 6 innings. The Ft Bend Clements pitcher was up to the task only allowing one infield hit to the Cowgirls for the game. The Cowgirls fell 0 -2 to the eventual Tournament Champions while never getting anything going offensively. The Cowgirls would now play for 3rd place in the final game of the tournament.

In the final game against Austin SF, the Cowgirls came out ready to “leave it on the dirt”. Pitcher Peyton Mosley struck out the first six Austin hitters and the Cowgirls offense made the Austin pitcher throw a lot of pitches in the first three innings with tough at bats. The Cowgirls would jump to a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the 4th with a lead-off double from Kelsey Latta. Trisha Van Winkle scored Latta with an RBI single and then scored on a Marisa Malazzo fielder’s choice. Austin evened the score at 2-2 on an error in the 7th propelling the game to yet another ITB for the Cowgirls. The game stayed knotted at 3 -3 to the 9th inning. After holding Austin scoreless in the top of the ninth, the Cowgirls capitalized In the bottom of the inning. Sarah Whitehead produced the RBI single thus sealing the Cowgirl victory. The Cowgirls sister duo of senior Tricia and freshman Alicia Van Winkle paced the Cowgirl offense with two hits each. Peyton Mosley pitched the complete game victory…. Peyton’s third win of the weekend!

In summary , the Cowgirls had a spectacular weekend finishing 3rd out of 40 teams only 6 of which were from the DFW area! We were victorious in three ITB games against quality competition. We showed that we can play with anyone in the State and matched up excellent with the stiff south Texas competition. This weekend will surely be a great beginning to a fabulous season!!