Howe Bulldogs Baseball

In the game of baseball, pitchers are always ahead of the hitters for the first few weeks of the sport, thus the reason for a month-long exhibition season for the big leagues. But at the high school level, this kind of leveling off happens with regular season games. The Howe Bulldogs, with a lineup including four underclassmen, have begun the season 0-4 as Head Coach Ryan Moreau tries to find the right mix before heading into district play in a couple of weeks.

Howe has a lot of lot of talent, most of which is very young, and they opened the season at Van Alstyne on Tuesday with a 10-0 loss where sophomore Austin Haley broke up a no-hitter in the fourth inning with a pop fly single that missed the glove of the Panther first baseman on one of the windiest nights of the year. Howe finished with two hits as junior Parker Pecina later snuck one through.

The Panthers only recorded five hits thanks to the pitching of Parker Pecina, senior Dylan Hughs, senior Brett Burnett, and sophomore Carson Daniels, but they arms didn’t get the help from the gloves as Van Alstyne scored four unearned runs. The pitching tandem also didn’t help their own cause as they walked nine batters.

On Thursday, Pecina again took to the hill in a 6-2 loss at Anna in their own tournament. Pecina allowed four earned runs in 1.1 innings of work, walking two and striking out two. But the Dogs got a good relief outing from junior Luke Lopez who held the Coyotes to one earned run over two innings, striking out three. Senior Austin Thurman came in and recorded the final two outs allowing only one baserunner. The Dogs were held to three hits including a double by sophomore Ryan Hough in his varsity debut, and singles by senior Dylan Hughs, and Haley.

The Bulldogs then faced McKinney Christian and took an 8-0 loss where Haley got the start on the mound and pitched two quality innings, allowing one earned run on one hit and struck out three and walked one. Burnett followed with two more identical excellent innings with the exception of one more walk than Haley. Daniels spelled Burnett with 1.1 innings, allowing four earned runs on two hits, three walks, and two strikeouts. Thurman closed it out the final two outs allowing only one baserunner.

Luke Lopez recorded both hits for Howe in the game including a double.

The final game of the week was a 19-3 loss, but the bats started to come alive as Hughs went 3-for-3 with a double and a triple and an RBI. Haley also hit a run-scoring double and Burnett hit an RBI single.

Howe allowed 10 unearned runs including the first two and the final eight runs of the game. Hughs got the start and went two innings allowing one earned run on one hit, striking out two. Sophomore Caleb Searcy allowed four earned runs in 1.1 innings. Hough allowed four earned runs in one inning. Junior Kaleb McNutt walked three and allowed seven unearned runs in 1.1 innings and Turman walked one and allowed one hit for the final out.

Howe will play in Whitesboro on Tuesday and will take on Trenton at 2:30 on Thursday at VA and at VA on Friday at 7:30 pm.

Softball

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season was cut short due to COVID. But Qualls, a 21-year veteran coach, says the goal for 2021 is to again be in the playoffs and thinks the has good enough talent do it.

“We’ve got a lot of raw talent. There’s a few kids, even senior that have bad habits, but we can tweak that,” said Qualls.

Qualls says he has four pitchers and has been working all fall with junior Micaiah Franklin, freshman Ryleigh Craven, and freshman Railyn Murphy. Junior Harley Brockelman faced seven hitters in a recent scrimmage and struck four out which impressed the new skipper.

Small ball is not the flavor for Qualls style of softball, not that he won’t use that at time. But he says his style is line-drive-based and slashing. tant football coach and girls track coach. He then went to R.L. Turner where he became the assistant hitting coach. His first head coaching job was at Athens in 2006.

“I love the game. To me there’s not a better game on the planet because it’s fast paced, it’s strategic and you better have your stuff in a good bucket to keep up with it,” said Qualls.

The Howe girls won their first game of the year against Collinsville behind Franklin’s 3-inning shutout. Murphy then went two innings allowing one earned run while Craven went two innings, allowing no earned runs. Each pitcher recorded two strikeouts.

At the plate in the 7-5 win, Hannah Dwyer drove in two runs by going 2-for-4 with a double and a triple. Murphy also went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Chloe Scoggins hit a double and a run scored while freshman Emery Snapp has a 2run triple.