Week 3 Winner: Alan McDougal
It was just the kind of tense, well-played baseball game
Heritage
(Colleyville) coach Alan McDougal expected when his Panthers
took on their biggest rival, Grapevine, with the District 6-5A lead at
stake.
What McDougal didn't expect was the odd ending
to his team's thrilling 4-3 victory in nine innings last Tuesday before
a packed grandstand at
Heritage.
Alan McDougal, Heritage head coach
Courtesy photo
The
winning run, in the person of
Alex
Alvarenga, scored from second base on a wind-blown, two-out
popup to shallow left field off the bat of
Preston
Palmeiro, the son of former major leaguer Rafael
Palmeiro.
That victory, along with subsequent wins by
Heritage and Grapevine on Friday, have the two rivals from the
Grapevine-Colleyville school district tied atop the district standings
with 9-1 records.
For engineering his team's reentry
in the league race, McDougal was selected as the Dallas High Yield Coach
of the Week presented by Capital One Bank.
"When you
think about what is at stake and you factor in the wind, the height of
the ball and three guys coming together, it wasn't a routine play,''
said McDougal afterward.
The level of baseball that
preceded the final play was top-notch.
"I really
thought we were going to play a good game. Pitchers were making pitches
and guys were making great plays for both teams,'' said McDougal, who
owns a 194-72 record at Heritage.
Alvarenga doubled
with one out in the bottom of the ninth.
Cody
Thomas, the area's home run leader with 10 and a University
of Oklahoma football signee as a quarterback, was intentionally walked.
After an infield popup for the second out, Palmeiro, a left-handed
hitter just like his dad, faced Grapevine reliever Connor
McGuire.
With an opposite-field swing, Palmeiro
lofted a high fly to shallow left. The left fielder, third baseman and
shortstop were in range to make the catch, but the wind made it
difficult. The ball came out of the glove of a diving Grapevine defender
when he contacted the ground. Running all the way, Alvargenga raced to
the plate for the deciding run.
Heritage (16-10-1)
trailed 1-0 through three, tied the game in the fourth (1-1) and in
fifth (2-2) before taking its first lead with a run in the
sixth.
Carey
Althouse doubled to open the Panthers' sixth and McDougal got
a successful sacrifice bunt from
Ryan
Ramsey to move the go-ahead run to third. When the next
hitter,
Jason
Adams, squared around for an apparent squeeze bunt, McGuire
uncorked a wild pitch for the run that gave the Panthers a 3-2
lead.
"We're mostly a senior ball club, but it sure
was nice to see some of the younger guys come through,'' McDougal
said.
Alvarenga is a sophomore. Althouse and Ramsey
are juniors.
An out from defeat in the bottom of the
seventh, Grapevine (19-8-1) got a clutch RBI single from Zach Kornely
for the run that sent the game into extra
innings.
Grapevine's Satchel Goodwin, the son of
former major leaguer Tom Goodwin, had a hit, scored a run and made an
excellent running catch in center field.
It was an
avenging victory for Heritage, which lost to Grapevine 10-1 on the road
earlier in the district campaign.
We didn't show the
same ability to battle in the game at Grapevine,'' McDougal said. "Now,
we have control back in our hands.''
McDougal,
originally from Sherman, graduated from Baylor and played two years for
the Bears baseball team. His first coaching job was at Boswell (Fort
Worth) followed by two stints at Arlington Heights (Fort Worth). He was a
head coach for a year at Commerce in between Arlington Heights
stops.
McDougal teaches math at Heritage in addition
to his coaching duty. Alan and wife Britt, also a teacher, have a
4-year-old son, Jaxon.
