Bulldogs Baseball

a Howe senior Parker Pecina puts the tag on Gunter at home Friday night. Photo by Michelle Carney.

The Howe Bulldogs (6-9, 2-4) fell to a very good Gunter team twice last week. The Tigers rattled Howe 17-2 on Tuesday, but Friday’s game was more manageable with a 10-4 score. glove. It wasn’t until the fourth inning when Howe would get another hit. But Pecina, Haley, Daniels, and Kaleb McNutt ripped four straight singles which drove home Haley.

On Tuesday, Gunter led off the game with three consecutive hits off of Howe starter Carson Daniels. After a walk, Carter of Gunter hit a 3-run homer. After the 4-run first inning by the Tigers, the game was on coast from that point on as they scored four more in the second and put up a 7-spot in the third inning. Daniels was relieved by Parker Pecina after 66 pitches. Pecina would throw 61 pitches and two runs scored in the fourth inning before the run-rule was called. On Friday, Haley got the start on the mound. Just as on Tuesday, Gunter hit a homer in the first inning, but only two runs were scored in the inning. The Tigers added five runs in the second inning but were shut down until the sixth inning when they added three more.

Most of Howe’s damage came in the second inning when runs were scored by Ryan Hough, Catching, and Lankford. Cooper Jones singled and scored in the fourth inning.

Howe’s Austin Haley and courtesy runner Luke Catching scored the only runs for the Dogs.

Garren Lankford led off the game with a technicality single as the ball fell without touching the first baseman’s After Haley went 77 pitches deep into the game, Matt Hayes relieved him. Hayes tossed 70 pitches of his own.

Daniels, Catching, and McNutt had multi-hit games for Howe.

Carson Daniels pushes the tag Gunter away. Photo by Michelle Carney.

About a month ago, Bryan announced that Zac Cater would return as the Bulldogs offensive coordinator after helped lead Howe to 321.5 yards of offense per game in 2021. That was an improvement of 156.22 yards per game from the 2020 season. The yards per game in 2021 was good for ninth best in school history. Howe also improved in scoring by over a touchdown per game under the direction of Cater but ranked only 34th all-time in that category suggesting finishing drives will be stressed by the staff this season. With Howe moving down to Division II combined with the return of seven offensive starters including all-time leading passer Austin Haley, the Bulldogs are expecting to explode the scoreboard on Friday nights.

Harvey will take over a defense which gave up a school record 49.20 points per game last season and gave up 49.33 points per game in 2020. Both of those were 11 points per game worse than the previous high from the 2012 season. Last season, Howe allowed a school record 463.90 yards per game, 312.5 of which were on the ground. In 2020, Howe allowed 436.67 yards per game. Other than those two seasons, the previous high was 365.10 back in 2008. The Bulldogs graduated five starters on defense. Four of the returning starters were underclassmen a year ago.

Howe Offensive Coordinator Zac Cater. Photo by Michelle Carney.

Harvey, still employed by Sanger ISD, will not be able to join the Howe staff full-time until after the school year and will begin working with athletes this summer.

Winston Mosse, a 2018 Howe graduate was announced at the March school board meeting as an addition to the coaching staff.

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