CCHS Baseball Team Finishes Season With An Eye To The Future

Cooper City pitcher gets ready to release his pitch. The Cowboys finished the season with an 8-12 record. Photo Credit: JOSH EHLERS

BY KEVIN KOPLIN

As another season comes to an end, Cooper City High School’s baseball team can reflect upon the year and prepare themselves for the future. Finishing the regular season with an 8-12 record (4-6 within the district), the Cowboys didn’t have one of their best seasons, but there were certainly moments to be proud of.

Every year the Cowboys begin with one simple goal: to win the district championship. Starting with offseason workouts in late September and tryouts in January, the Cowboys had the right mindset coming into the season.

“Basically all plays get implemented at the beginning of the year”, Coach Christopher Hinely said. “Then it’s just a matter of working on them in practice.”

Coach Hinely’s prior baseball experience as a player and coach has rubbed off on the team. Hinely played high school and college baseball before suffering an injury that ended his playing days and turned him to coaching. The team went over bunting, hitting, and fielding during practices, offensively working on situational hitting, and defensively repeatedly snagging fly’s and fielding ground balls. Baseball has a lot to do with repetition and by going over their objectives multiple times, the CCHS baseball team strived to improve over the season.

“Coach really helps us with the fundamentals”, junior Eric Davis said. “He teaches us what to do; it is our job to execute out on the field.”

A lot goes into excelling at baseball. Each player has a specific job, from infielders, outfielders, pitchers, and even coaches the team needs to work as a unit to win.

“One player can really impact a game”, Davis said. “But unless you play as a team it is difficult to win.”

Although the Cowboys didn’t have a winning season, they did have one game that will be remembered for a long time. After being blown out at home by Western High School early in the season, the Cowboys went to Western high with a determination to avenge that loss and a chance to qualify for the district playoffs. CCHS beat Western at their school and advanced to the district playoffs, their goal still in reach.

“The Western game was a great win,” Davis said. “To beat them at their place, after they crushed us at home, was awesome.”

The Cowboys season came to an end on Tuesday April 26^th when they faced off against Flanagan High School. After cutting things close in the in the third inning by scoring 2 runs to make the score 5-2, the Falcons exploded scoring another 9 runs and finished the game in the 5^th inning, after the mercy rule was implemented. The final score was 14-4.

As the 2011 season came to a close, the Cowboys can only look toward the future, to learn from the past, and continue their quest to win the district title.