(September 22, 2025 – Coppell, TX) A slow start fueled by a solid 4-run third inning catapulted into a blowout win Monday night as the Spirits (45+) fall squad took to action against the young Rough Riders on Cowboy Field on Coppell.
The top three Spirits hitters carried the bulk of the load including newcomer, Matthew Crowell led the game off with a double. Crowell had a big part in the Spirits offensive avalanche and later in the game he showcased his skill from mound and defensively using his glove making 3 separate plays on his own to throw runners out. He was assisted on offense by Eric McPherson who traded places with him a pitch later during the first inning by sending a double to the left field gap off of Rough Riders starter, Alex Reszitnyk. That 1 to 0 lead would later be boosted by the team’s turbo boost option on offense, Travis Hitzeman.
Despite an early lead, the Rough Riders rallied in the bottom frame for 3 runs of their own after Matt Calderara, Reszitnyk, and Samuel Garcia each singled. Calderara scored on Garcia’s single and a wild pitch moved both runners to scoring position. Reszitnyk scored when Michael Saludares grounded out and Garcia later scored when David Bennett grounded out.
The Spirits went in order in the second and were able to get out of 2 runners reaching in the bottom frame before the ghosts opened the third with 4 runs. Spirits starting pitcher, Jonathan Duran reached on an error by the Rough Riders second baseman and Stacy Scott drew a base-on-balls. Crowell added his second double of the game allowing Duran to score before McPherson flew out deep enough to center field to score Scott on the sacrifice fly. Hitzeman was hit by a pitch and both runners were able to advance on a wild pitch before Shawn Lee was called out on an arguable strike three call that slowed the inning. Fortunately, Kent Fischer followed with an RBI single to send home both Crowell and Hitzeman to give the Spirits a 5 to 3 advantage before Mike Sopocy grounded out.
The score remained the same until the top half of the fourth when the Spirits batted for nearly 50 minutes. Shawn Hunt drew a walk and Earl German singled to start things off before Duran singled home Hunt. Scott kept this moving with another single and Crowell’s sacrifice fly was good enough to score German. McPherson singled and Hitzeman followed with a single to score Duran. Scott later scored on a wild pitch before Lee followed with an RBI single to score McPherson. A balk call allowed Hitzeman home free of charge before Fischer was walked. Sopocy was hit by a pitch from the Rough Riders relief pitcher to keep the bases busy and Hunt followed suit by wearing another pitch that allowed Lee to cross the plate. German earned another easy RBI after drawing a walk, and after getting Duran to bite on a few change ups, Scott followed the strikeout by drawing yet another walk. Hunt scored in a wild pitch to keep the merry-go-round active before Crowell drew a walk to once again load the bags. McPherson walked to score German and Hitzeman finally broke the walking parade up with a double that cleared the bases to give the Spirits a 19 to 3 lead before the Rough Riders turned to their third pitcher, Eric Kim. Kim was able to get Lee on swings to stop the bleeding before the back-broken defense switched sites to hit.
As if things couldn’t get worse for the Rough Riders, Lee turned to Crowell for his first experience on the mound in over 24 years. Crowell somehow picked up likely were he left off, placing pitches perfectly called by Hunt behind the plate, getting Saludares to fly out before walking Bennett. He then struck out both Matthew Peyregne and Ty Featherston to end the inning.
After the Spirits went in order in the fifth, Crowell proceeded to strike out Kim before getting John Ip and Keith Riley to ground out to end the game due to the league’s 10-run mercy rule.
“Pretty ridiculous effort from (Matthew) Crowley tonight,” Lee commented after the game. “We met on the golf course and he expressed interested in playing baseball during some of our back and forth on the course. I, of course, invited him to come check it out and he looked like he never quit playing. He went 3-for-3 in our first game and added another pair of hits tonight. We weren’t able to get him on the hill last week but I can promise you he’ll get much more time after tonight’s performance. Great attitude and he gets in done by example. That’s good stuff. Heck of a night for him and he’s already tolerating the nonsense in our dugout. It was definitely meant to be.”
The Spirits return to action next Monday night back at the friendly confines of Cowboy Field when visit the Hurricanes. First pitch is slated for 7:00PM and fans can click here to view schedule details or to download the iScore Central app to listen live online.
Ranger Fire Players of the Game
Matthew Crowell (2-2, 2 2B, SF, 3 R, 2 RBI, BB; 2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, BB, 2 K)
Eric McPherson (2-2, 2B, SF, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB)
Travis Hitzeman (2-3, 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI, HBP)