This week was the beginning of spring for the Temple College Leopards.
It was also the first week since baseball and softball have taken over the full focus of Leopard Nation.
Before we get started with our report, let us catch up on Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference men's basketball postseason honors and the NTJCAC All-Academic team:
Telfort, Roper, Brown-Peterson highlight Leopards on NTJCAC All-Conference teams
The 2024-2025 North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference All-Conference teams were announced on Monday afternoon.
Josh Telfort was named to the All-NTJCAC First Team, Camren Roper and Jaymes Brown-Peterson were named to the All-NTJCAC Second Team, and Rasuan Collier, Storm Gilchrist, and Roy Gardner were named Honorable mention.
A native of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Telfort averaged 14.9 points per game in conference, shot 51% from the field, 23.1% from behind the three-point arc, 64.3% from the free-throw line, and averaged 7.7 rebounds per contest.
Telfort's most productive game in conference was against Collin County Community College at Kirby Johnson Court, when he scored 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting and went 5-of-7 from the charity stripe.
His best point output of the season on Dec. 12 at Dallas College Cedar Valley when he scored 34 points in a 116-84 win.
A product of Steele High School in Cibolo, Texas, Roper average 7.6 points per conference game, 31.9% from the field, 20.7% from the three-point line, 67.6% from the free-throw line, 5.4 rebounds, 3.9 steals, and 3.1 assists per game.
Roper's best conference output of the season was on Jan. 25 at Southwestern Christian College in Terrell, where he scored 16 points in a 93-80 loss.
The sophomore guard's output in the SWCC game tied his season-high 16 points set against Dallas College Brookhaven on Nov. 12.
A former Shoemaker High School standout from Killeen, Texas, Brown-Peterson average 11.4 points per conference game, which included 45.1% from the field, 26.9% from beyond the arc, 83.3% from the free-throw line, 2.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.4 steals.
Brown-Peterson's best conference game was at Hill College as he scored 26 points off the bench in Temple's 90-85 win in Hillsboro. He scored in double-digits in six straight games down the stretch and seven of the last nine contests.
His previous career high was 21 points in Temple's 96-85 loss to Navarro College on Nov. 9.
A native of Duncanville, Texas, Collier was one of Temple's aces off the bench in conference play. Collier averaged 5.9 points per conference contest, which included 26.1% from the field, 25.4% from the behind the three-point line, 75% from the free-throw stripe, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.6 steals.
Collier's best conference performance was against Collin County Community College on Jan. 11, as he scored 11 points in Temple's 81-76 with at Kirby Johnson Court. Collier scored ten points on three separate occasions in NTJCAC play.
His career high was on Jan. 4 in Temple's 80-57 win over Dallas College Eastfield at Kirby Johnson Court, when Collier scored 25 points on 8-of-18 from the field, which included 7-of-15 from beyond the arc.
A native of Durban, South Africa, Gilchrist missed much of conference play due to injury. When he was in the lineup, he was impactful. He averaged 14.5 points per conference game, 73.3% from the field, 77.8% from the free-throw line, 11.8 rebounds, and three assists.
His best conference game was Jan. 8 at Ranger College, when he scored 21 points in Temple's 89-83 road victory.
Prior to his performance against Ranger, his best output was against Navarro College when he scored 17 points in a 96-85 Temple loss against the Roadrunners.
A product of Rouse High School in Leander, Texas, Gardner averaged 7.3 points per conference game, which included 41.2% from the field, 29.4% from beyond the arc, 61.15 from the charity stripe, three rebounds, and 1.2 steals.
Gardner's best conference performance was against Ranger College on Feb. 8 when he scored 20 points on 6-of-10 from the field and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line as Temple defeated the Rangers at Kirby Johnson Court, 86-72.
Prior to his Ranger performance, Gardner's season-high was 14 points set on Dec. 4 against Strength 'N Motion International.
The Leopards finished their season with an 18-13 record, having averaged 73.9 points per game in conference.
Twenty Temple College student-athletes receive NTJCAC All-Academic honors
Temple College athletes have been hard at work in their athletic endeavors as well as in the classroom.
Twenty Leopards have been named the Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference Academic All-Conference team for the 2024-2025 school year.
The guideline for the team is that each recipient has earned a minimum of 36 hours of courses that leads to a degree all while maintaining an accumulative grade point average of 3.25 or higher. The student-athlete must have participated in a least one season on the varsity level and lettered in one or more sports.
Here is the list of Temple College student-athletes that were named to this season's team:
Baseball – Wade Denton (Georgetown, Texas), Tanner Jackson (Round Rock, Texas), Brayden Simmons (Keller, Texas), Sebastian Wills Arauz (Round Rock, Texas), Louis Alonzo. (Cedar Park, Texas),
Gabriel Gutierrez (San Antonio, Texas), Luke Meyer (Danville, California), Lance Cantrell (Tomball, Texas), Eric Tenery (Kerrville, Texas).
Women's Basketball – Imani McCray (Conroe, Texas), Sincere McCalister (Hutto, Texas).
Men's Basketball – Harry Bates (Port MacQuarie, Australia).
Softball – Kendall Gross (Killeen, Texas), Haley Crawford (Cypress, Texas), Emily Delgado (San Benito, Texas), Camryn Dunkley (Schertz, Texas), Paige Findley (Harker Heights, Texas), Anissa Hill (Richland, Texas)
Volleyball – Mia Dunaway (New Braunfels, Texas), Lexi Manning (Celina, Texas).
Baseball drops three of four to Vernon
The Temple College Leopards baseball team began four-game North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference series with the Vernon College Chaparrals at the Danny Scott Sports Complex.
The teams managed to split the doubleheader, as Temple got a quality start from Patrick Collopy and save from Tobin Eschief to win the opener, 5-3.
The Leopards' quick lead in the second game was erased in the second inning and Vernon outscored Temple over the final three innings, 9-3, to defeat the Leopards in eight innings, 16-8.
Jackson Todd's single to right field in the first inning scored Peanut Brazzle to give Temple a 1-0 lead.
The Leopards scored twice in the third inning. Lance Cantrell singled to left field scored Ryder Rutledge and Kade Davis' liner to centerfield resulted in an RBI single score Andrew Ermis.
Rutledge's two-run double scored Kolvin Davis and Todd to extend Temple's lead to 5-0 going into the top of the sixth.
Irvin Leonard's leadoff homer in the sixth inning broke up Collopy's shutout bid. Anthony Talpa's two-run homer clipped Temple's lead to two runs, 5-3.
Eschief took over for Collopy in the seventh, and Vernon put the tying run on at second. Eschief induced a Leonard groundout to end the first game.
Rutledge had two hits and two RBI to lead Temple. Brazzle stole three bases, as the Leopards swiped six bags in the game.
Leonard went 2-of-4 and Talpa drove in two runs to lead the Chaparrals.
Collopy picked up the win, allowed three runs on six hits and struck out four in six innings. Eschief pitched an inning of relief in the save, having walked two and struck out one.
Josh Ashen took the loss, having pitched five innings, allowed five runs (four earned) on six hits, walked four and struck four. Grant McLendon pitched an inning and walked one.
Ermis gave Temple the early game two lead with a solo homer to left field in the bottom of the first.
Vernon took the lead in the top of the second when Jorge Olivera-Gutierrez singled home Joey Duran and Talpa. Olivera-Gutierrez scored on Michael Russell's single to put the Chaparrals up 3-1,
The Leopards cut their margin in half on Kolvin Davis' solo homer to left field in the bottom of the second.
The Chaparrals took the lead for good in the fourth inning. Will Dixon singled home Olivera-Gutierrez, Eric Maisonet's single scored Russell, and Cooper Thomas' double scored Maisonet and Dixon to give Vernon a 7-2 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Brazzle, Sage Sanders, and Kolvin Davis drew bases-loaded walks to put the Leopards to within two runs and had the tying run at second base when it was stranded on a ground to keep the game at two runs.
Duran's two-run single in the sixth, Maisonet's two-run homer in the seventh and bases-loaded hit-by-pitch in the eighth put the Chaparrals up by seven. Leonard's grand slam wrapped the scoring Vernon as they led going to bottom of the eighth, 16-5.
Cantrell and Kade Davis sandwiched sacrifice flies around an RBI single by Ermis to cut the deficit to eight. However, the Leopards could get the game out of run-rule and lost by eight.
Maisonet and Leonard each drove in four runs, and Thomas, Duran, and Olivera-Gutierrez each drove in two.
Ermis had two hits, two runs scored, and two RBI to lead the Leopards.
On Saturday, The Temple College Leopards headed to Vernon in the continuation of their conference series.
Vernon won the doubleheader, taking game one in five innings, 11-1, and dropping an 18-16 slugfest in game two.
Cantrell's solo homer in the top of the fourth inning tied the score at 1-1. It was the lone hit of the game for the Leopards.
Three Temple errors resulted in five of 11 runs scored being unearned, as the Chaparrals scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and five more in the fifth to end the opening game in run rule fashion.
Eschief took the loss for Temple, as he pitched 3 2/3 innings, allowed six runs (one earned) on five hits, walked three and struck out three. Wade Denton pitched 2/3 inning of relief, allowed five runs on four hits, and walked two.
In game two, Temple jumped out to a 4-0 lead and led 6-1 in the bottom of the second when Vernon scored six times to lead going into the third, 7-6.
The Leopards got the equalizer in the top of the fourth before the Chaparrals put up four runs in the bottom of the inning to lead 11-7.
Temple scored single runs in the fourth, fifth, sixth innings, and four times in the seventh to take a 14-10 lead.
Vernon scored six times in the bottom of the seventh inning and held Temple to two runs over the final two innings to secure the doubleheader win.
Ermis, Brazzle, and Kade Davis homered in the game.
All nine starters for Temple recorded at least one hit, with Kade Davis, Sanders, and Hunter Baros having collected three hits each, and Cantrell and Todd each having contributed two hits. Baros had three doubles and Cantrell reached twice on two-baggers.
Ermis and Kade Davis both had three RBI, while Brazzle and Jackson Todd drove home two runs each.
Where do they stand
Temple College is 12-17 overall and 5-7 in NTJCAC play.
What is on deck
The Leopards begin a four-game series with North Central Texas College Lions on Wednesday. The series will start with a doubleheader at the Danny Scott Sports Complex Wednesday at 12 pm. The series shifts to Gainesville on Saturday for a doubleheader at NCTC.
Leopards' softball wins three of four from Vernon
The Temple College had to wait for the winds to die down to begin their four-game series with the Vernon College Chaparrals, as they took the trip to north Texas on Thursday.
The Leopards received a game one no-hitter and game two win in relief from Haley Crawford, a 7-for-8 with five RBI performance from Lily Garcia, four hits from Emily Delgado and Reese Cottrell as Temple swept the Chaparrals by scores of 13-0 and 5-3.
The Leopards started game one by scoring in each of the first three innings. Vernon misplayed an infield fly ball by Angie DeLeon to score Marleigh Manns and Garcia's sacrifice fly put the Leopards up 2-0 in the first.
Marli Kennedy stole home plate in the second inning, Garcia's two-run single and a Vernon error that scored Garcia in the third inning gave Temple a 6-0 lead.
The Leopards scored seven runs in the seventh inning. Delgado's RBI triple brought home Garcia, Jasmine Benavidez's sacrifice fly scored Paige Findley, Manns' two-run double scored Layla Oliver and Kennedy, Kendall Gross' pinch-hit two-run double plated Abby Drabek and Manns, and Garcia's double scored Gross to cap the scoring.
Crawford pitched seven innings for the complete game no-hitter, having walked one, hit a batter, and struck out a career-high 11 batters.
Garcia went 4-of-5 with four RBI, Delgado went 2-of-4, and Cottrell collected two hits. The Leopards stole six bases in seven tries.
Kylie Phillips' bunt scored Anita Gonzalez and Avery Pemberton's double drove home Phillips to give Vernon a 2-0 lead in the first inning of game two.
Cottrell's single with one out in the fourth scored Delgado and Anissa Hill's groundout scored Findley to tie the game at 2-2.
Vernon scored an unearned run in the fourth on a Phillips single and an error that plated Gonzalez to give the Chaparrals a 3-2 lead.
Garcia tied the game in the top of the fifth with an RBI grounder that scored Lexi Dudeczka.
Delgado gave Temple the lead for good in the top of the seventh as her one out, two-run double scored Dudeczka and Garcia to give the Leopards the 5-3 advantage.
Crawford allowed a leadoff double in the bottom of the inning but retired the final three batters to close out the twin-bill.
Garcia had three hits, and Dudeczka, Delgado, and Kennedy each picked up two base knocks.
Hannah Calhoun started in the circle for TC, allowed two unearned runs on three hits. Crawford took over in the third inning, pitched five innings for the relief win, allowed an unearned run on four hits, walked two and struck out two.
Pemberton led Vernon with two hits.
On Saturday, the sun and skies were beautiful at the Danny Scott Sports Complex as Vernon came to Temple.
The Leopards generated enough offense to win game one, 6-4. TC was unable to get any offense going in game two as Vernon won the second game, 3-1.
Danielle Powell's RBI in the top of the second scored Kamden Hutton to give the Chaparrals an early 1-0 lead.
Benavidez's base hit set up Cottrell's two-run homer to give TC a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second.
Vernon got the equalizer in the second inning when Laila Lopez's scored Hutton.
Temple took the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth. Cottrell belted her second homer of the game, having pulled a fastball over the rightfield fence. Garcia's sacrifice fly scored Dudeczka, and Kennedy's single scored Manns to give Temple a 5-2 advantage.
The Leopards tacked on a run the bottom of the fifth, as Cottrell reached on an error that scored Paige Findley.
Vernon rallied for two runs in the top of the seventh on the two-run double by Hutton. Cottrell, who came on in relief of starting pitcher Crawford, shut down the rally and closed out the game.
Cottrell, Garcia, Kennedy, and Manns each had two hits as part of Temple's 11-hit attack. Cottrell had three RBI, and Garcia and Kennedy each had one.
Kadey Hatley took the loss in the circle. She pitched three innings, allowed three runs on seven hits and allowed a walk. Audrey Lumbreras pitched three innings of relief, allowed three runs (two earned) on four hits, walked one and struck out one.
Hutton had three hits and two RBI, and Leila Lopez had two hits and a run batted in to lead Vernon.
Crawford picked up the win, allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits, struck out six and walked two. Cottrell pitched an inning, allowed two unearned runs on a hit, struck out one and walked one.
Anita Gonzalez single scored Morgan Yeager in the top of the second, which was answered by sacrifice fly by Abby Drabek that scored Findley.
Phillips' single scored Lopez and Pemberton's double scored Phillips in the fourth inning to cap the scoring.
Pemberton and Gonzalez each had two hits, as Vernon collected seven.
Giovanca Frias pitched a complete game for the win, having allowed an unearned run on four hits, struck out four and walked one.
Garcia, Kennedy, Cottrell, and Benavidez combined for the Leopards' four hits,
Calhoun took the loss in the circle, having allowed three runs on six hits, struck out and walked one in four innings of work. Delgado pitched three innings, allowed one hit and one walk, having struck out four.
Where they stand
The Leopards are 27-10 overall and 10-6 in NTJCAC play
What is on deck
The Leopards will take on North Central Texas College in a four-game series that starts with a Wednesday doubleheader in Gainesville. The series will shift back to Temple for a Saturday doubleheader.