Tigers Ready To Start Region Play On Friday
By Brandon Reed
The Commerce Tigers look to turn their early season luck around after losing games to both Oglethorpe County and Banks County last week. Their next chance to score their first win of the season will come on Friday, when they’ll host Towns County in their first region match-up of the year. The first pitch in that game is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Oglethorpe County
Last Wednesday, the Tigers traveled to Oglethorpe County to face the Patriots, who entered the game winless on the young season. While the Tigers worked well defensively, they didn’t put the ball in play often enough, and came up on the short end of a 5-2 score.
Commerce took a one run lead in the first, and held the Patriots at bay until the bottom of the fifth, when Oglethorpe put two runs across. The Tigers tied the game in the top of the fifth, and sent the game into extra innings when the Patriots couldn’t answer in the bottom of the inning. But Oglethorpe put the game away in the bottom of the eighth with three runs.
Reuben Haynes went 2-for-3 on the day, with a single and a double. Hunter Ward had a single.
Cohen Cooke recorded the loss, pitching three and a third innings, giving up four hits while striking out one. Haynes pitched three and two-thirds innings, striking out seven and giving up three runs.
“Against Oglethorpe, we played as well defensively as any team I’ve had in three years,” said coach Walt Massey. “Carl Allen had six assists from his third base position. Reuben (Haynes) pitched well, he just got a bit fatigued as his pitch count approached 65. If he continues to throw that well and gains a bit more stamina during his next few bullpen sessions, I’m confident he will win a lot of games for us this season.
“We did a lot of things well defensively, and strategically we executed several bunts well. We just weren’t able to put the ball in play enough to win. With eleven strikeouts and three hits, we were actually fortunate to have a chance to win.”
Banks County
The Tigers went into Thursday’s game against the Leopards hoping to exact a little revenge for their season opening loss on Feb. 27.
They didn’t get it, as Banks County pummeled Commerce 20-3 in a game that went only five innings.
The Leopards struck first in the top of the second with four runs, but Commerce answered in the bottom of the inning by putting two on the board. Banks County put three more across the plate in the third, while the Tigers’ bats fell silent. Banks added four runs in the top of fourth, while Commerce could only muster one run.
The nail in the coffin came in the top of the fifth inning, as the Leopards put nine runs across.
Cooke had a double for Commerce, while Haynes went 1-2 and Allen got the other two hits, both singles.
Allen recorded the loss on the mound, surrendering six hits while recording two strikeouts in two innings.
“The Banks County game was light years removed from the effort and focus we showed against Oglethorpe,” Massey said. “We looked very uninterested and lethargic.
“We missed an opportunity to jump ahead big with the bases loaded in the first inning and didn’t capitalize. From then on, we were just trying to escape with a semblance of our pride intact. I’m not sure, yet, if we did that or not. We did very few things well on Thursday.
“People often say they’d rather lose big than lose a heartbreaker, well I can certainly tell you that I would rather not lose at all.”
Up Next
The Tigers will try to recover from the two losses in their first region game Friday at home against Towns County.
“If we have any fight about us at all, we will use the two games last week as motivation to get back on the practice field to correct the things that are preventing us from being successful,” Massey said. “This is the biggest week of our season as we prepare for our first region contest. Our season starts this week.”
