Spirits (45+) Weather the Storm vs. Hurricanes

(May 4, 2026 – Coppell, TX) A fast start by the Spirits (45+) offense slowly changed from sunny skies to a major storm brewing in the Hurricanes dugout on Monday night. The Spirits used a 5-run first inning followed by 3 more runs over the next two innings to jump out to an 8 to 0 lead over the ‘Canes in what appeared would turn to an easy win.

Then the winds started to change direction a bit and the Spirits found themselves in the middle of a battle.

After holding the Hurricanes to nothing in the top half of the first inning, Cliff Brade led the Spirits offense off with a single and promptly swiped second base to put himself in scoring position. Eric McPherson followed with a single to put runners on the corners and after stealing second, Brade scored on an RBI single from Kirk Sipila. Sipila was able to move to second following an error by Hurricanes starting pitcher, Jim Crombie and Brian Kellner made it hurt with a 2-RBI single to score him and McPherson. Kellner was able to advance on a Hurricanes throwing error and he later scored on an RBI single by Dee Mauldin. Mauldin swiped second base before Mike Sopocy struck out and later scored when Will Nash was put out at first on a dropped third strike.

Earl German singled with two out in the second and swiped second base before scoring on an RBI single from Stacy Scott to make it 6 to 0, Spirits.

In the third, Sipila drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second following an error by the Hurricanes catch. He later scored in an RBI single by Kellner and Keller was later squeezed when Mauldin reached on a fielder’s choice. Mauldin swiped another bag before Sopocy lost another battle of strikes but was able to score after moving over on a passed ball and then when Nash reached on a fielding error.

With an 8 to 0 lead, the team appeared to be coasting. Vinny Diciero who was a last minute start due to Jonathan Duran arriving late was solid in his start despite 4 walks. Diciero allowed only 1 hit and struck out 3 to hold the lead before Duran replaced him in the fourth inning. Eric Reifschneider reached following a throwing error by Scott and a single by Emanuel Velez moved him to second. Vincent Parello doubled to score both runners and then scored after Joel Galloway singled and the lead was down to, 8 to 3. Raul Ponce grounded out but Ben Northcutt reached on another error before Mike O’Hornett singled home Galloway to cut the lead in half. Crombie grounded out but both runners moved over before an easy grounder to second turned momentarily catastrophic. Brad Petty hit a medium ground ball to Scott at second who proceed to field the ball and upon relaying to German at first, German mishandled the throw and everyone was safe with both runners crossing the plate. Terry Helm followed with a single to make things even more tense but Duran was able to get Scott Jeffries to fly out to uphold the lead.

“Not sure what was going to happen at that point,” Shawn Lee mentioned after the game. “Things were getting a little tense; probably mostly in my head. But it felt like we were collapsing and that was hard to watch.”

Lee, sidelined with torn fascia in his right foot could only watch as his team breathed a sigh of relief heading back toward the dugout to return to offense. Diciero drew a one-out walk in the bottom half of the fourth after Northcutt relieved Crombie on the mound, but Diciero lost focus momentarily and was picked off at first before German drew a walk. Scott grounded out and the Hurricanes still appeared to have momentum.

In the top half of the fifth, Jamie Byers drew a walk from Duran but Adam Althouse lined out to the infield and the Spirits were able to relay to first to pick off Byers for a double-play. Dave Wylie then drew another walk and Lee turned to Sopocy to shut things down with time on the league’s 2-hour game limit winding down. Sopocy was able to get Reifschneider looking and as the game went into the bottom of the fifth, Duran went down swinging while trying to knock one out of the park before Brade was hit by a pitch when the game ended due to time constraints.

“Got a little ugly but we’ll take it,” continued Lee. “Feel like we have to do a little better than that and some of that’s on me. I wanted to get Duran in and it seemed that Vinny was struggling with control a bit, but I should have likely given him one more inning. Easy to think about after the fact. Always trying to learn though. But it’s a W and against a friendly rival, so we’ll take it.”

The team returns to play next Monday night when they visit the Knights at Cowboy Field. First pitch is at 8:45PM and fans can click here for schedule details or to listen to the game live online after downloading the iScore Central app.

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