If at any point before last week you had discussed the Cooper baseball team’s playoff chances, the words “slim” and “none” might have been part of the conversation.
But following a 1-8 start to District 4-5A play, the Cougars have worked themselves back into the league’s postseason race with a four-game winning streak that few would have predicted after back-to-back losses to crosstown rivals Abilene High (4-0) and Wylie (3-2) saw their losing streak hit seven games on March 28.
In the aftermath of that loss to AHS, though, third-year coach Brandon Stover challenged his squad in a very direct way to do some self reflection and respond. And since that game, the Cougars have done exactly that, following a one-run loss at Wylie with wins over Lubbock Monterey (3-1), Lubbock High (5-4), Lubbock Coronado (6-5) and Lubbock Cooper (10-2) to pull within two games of their district’s fourth playoff spot with five games left to play.