KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Mason Taylor hollered at Daylon Swearingen down the hallway of T-Mobile Center following the Carolina Cowboys 175-0 victory over the Austin Gamblers on Friday night.

“Hey Daylon, how about that pickleball game on Thursday?” Taylor yelled with a grin before adding, “Me and Cooper stomped his ass.”

Swearingen then stopped in his tracks and turned around.

“Don’t bring that up. I am still salty about this,” Swearingen said.

The two Carolina teammates then erupted in laughter.

A night earlier, the Cowboys had a team bonding outing at Chicken N Pickle – a local restaurant with pickleball courts in Kansas City – and Taylor teamed up with the 2016 World Champion to defeat Swearingen and Boudreaux Campbell in a game of pickleball.

“Me and Boudreaux’s theory was that Mason was having a rough couple weeks, so wanted to get his confidence up playing pickle ball (laughs),” Swearingen said.

Swearingen may be the reigning PBR World Champion, but Taylor was happy to get some bragging rights on his friend.

Taylor is even more excited, though, about having Swearingen on his team for the PBR Team Series.

Swearingen has been lights out for the Cowboys (2-1; Outlaw Days 1-0), and he remained a perfect 4-for-4 in Teams competition with his 87.25-point ride on Apper’s Mind Freak to begin the game for Carolina on Friday night.

Carolina coach Jerome Davis has kept Swearingen as his leadoff rider in the team’s three games so far, and Swearingen has responded soundly every, single time.

Taylor then followed up Swearingen’s ride with his own 87.75 points aboard Casper as Carolina quickly built a two-ride lead and eventually coasted past Austin (1-2, Outlaw Days 0-1).

“When he starts it off right, that’s how the night’s going to go, and he gives everybody confidence,” Taylor said. “Not to say it gives us a little a bit of a cushion to start off, but the reigning World Champ is pretty good at his job, so that’s why we lean on him to start it off.”

The Cowboys will look to remain perfect at Outlaw Days on Saturday night when they take on the winless Ariat Texas Rattlers (7:45 p.m. ET RidePass on Pluto TV).

“It is a good way to start it off,” coach Davis told Allen Bestwick on Pluto TV. “There are two more nights of it, so we are going to keep the momentum I hope rolling. Two more nights and I hope we can bring it home at the end.”

Carolina is the only team with two active World Champions on its roster, while they are one of only two teams with a head coach who won a World Championship as a rider.

There is a gold buckle aroma surrounding the Cowboys, and Taylor said that having champions like Swearingen and Cooper Davis in a locker room led by the 1995 PRCA champion Jerome Davis is only giving this Carolina team more swagger.

“On this team, there are three gold buckles, and I feel like everyone is hungry and wanting one too, but we want to be the first ones at the end of the year to win the first ever Team Series,” Taylor concluded.

SATURDAY GAME SCHEDULE

Austin Gamblers (1-2, Outlaw Days 0-1) vs. Missouri Thunder (2-1, Outlaw Days 0-1)
Ariat Texas Rattlers (0-3, Outlaw Days 0-1) vs. Carolina Cowboys (2-1, Outlaw Days 1-0)
Oklahoma Freedom (1-2, Outlaw Days 1-0) vs. Arizona Ridge Riders (2-1, Outlaw Days 1-0)
Nashville Stampede (2-1, Outlaw Days 1-0) vs. Kansas City Outlaws (1-2, Outlaw Days 0-1)*
*CBS Game of the Week (Airs Sunday at noon ET)

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media