Extra practice swings paying off for Tattnall Square

If there’s one thing Tattnall Square baseball head coach Joey Hiller isn’t going to be worried about this season, it’s run support for his pitching staff.

Low-scoring games have been few and far between for the defending GHSA Class 1A private school championship team. Tattnall has scored 10 or more runs in 10 of its first 14 games, going 13-1 and earning the No. 2 spot behind Holy Innocents — a Class 2A semifinalist last year — in the Score Atlanta Class 1A private rankings.

Heading into Thursday night’s late home game against ninth-ranked FPD, Tattnall had scored 167 runs — an average of 11.9 per game. That’s an improvement of 5.2 runs per game from last season.

The pitching? It hasn’t been bad, either. Tattnall has allowed just 47 runs, an average of 3.4 per game.

“Our hitting has been clicking,” said pitcher-infielder Trey Ham, who leads the team with five home runs. “We’ve been playing well as a team, also.”

A good chunk of the credit for that offensive success goes to a construction project Tattnall undertook during the offseason. A covered batting facility was built for the baseball program, giving the Trojans several all-weather batting cages with which to work.

Tattnall’s players have taken plenty of cuts in those cages. The Trojans started the season with eight straight games with 10 or more runs scored, starting with a 38-run day Feb. 18 at Cairo in which they recorded victories over the Class 4A Syrupmakers and Class 3A Crisp County.

“Preseason workouts, we really got after it,” said Luke Laskey, who leads Tattnall with 19 hits. “They found an incentive to come back and win another (championship).

“Usually, in the preseason workouts, when it rains, we can’t do much, we can’t get much work in. Now, with the cages, we can exercise in there, get everything we need in there, hit cages, everything.”

The Trojans have seen benefits with both power and consistency on offense. Tattnall is batting .357 as a team, with eight players with significant plate appearances at .300 or better and five players have combined to hit 13 home runs.

Logan Simmons leads the team in batting average (.500), runs scored (22) and RBI (20), while Tyler Warnock paces the team in doubles (six).

Tattnall has failed to score five or more runs in just two games: a 3-2 loss March 11 at Class 7A Lakeside-DeKalb in the second game of a doubleheader and a 4-1 win over Stratford on March 11.

“The first five batters in our lineup have all hit home runs,” Ham said. “That’s a very positive thing.”

With only two games against Wilkinson County remaining on the Region 7A-1A schedule, Tattnall will get some work in against some high-quality statewide opponents as the regular season draws to a close.

Tattnall will host games against Prince Avenue Christian (March 30), GISA power Deerfield-Windsor (March 31), Eagle’s Landing Christian (April 6) and fourth-ranked King’s Ridge Christian (April 14), as well as take on George Walton and Holy Innocents in an April 8 doubleheader at George Walton.

It’s a schedule that should have the Trojans, who are in just their third season in the GHSA, well-prepared for another deep postseason run.

“It’s the way we do things,” Tattnall head coach Joey Hiller said. “We’ve got a certain culture here where we set the bar really high and hold everybody accountable to a standard of excellence. The players buy into it, and the coaches are great at holding that bar high and keeping these players in check and accountable. It doesn’t surprise me at all that we have been competitive. I’ve wished for years that we’d been able to play in the GHSA.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 5:30 PM with the headline "Extra practice swings paying off for Tattnall Square."