Veterans becoming a master of winning on the road

Chances are that few members of the Veterans baseball team are familiar with Willie Nelson.

But when the Warhawks hop on a bus Tuesday for another GHSA Class AAAA baseball series, they might sing “On The Road Again” with smiles galore.

They just can’t wait to get on the road again.

Veterans made the most of the long ride from Kathleen through Atlanta traffic on Wednesday and Thursday, coming up with a huge Class AAAA baseball series win over Marist.

The Warhawks won the opener 11-6 and lost 8-0 in the second game, but they came up with a gutsy a 2-1 win in the finale.

“We’ve been road warriors,” said Veterans head coach David Coffey, whose team improved to 21-9. “You tip your hat to the kids. It’s tough to go on the road. So far, so good.”

Veterans is covering for its head coach’s weakness in one area.

“I’ve learned I’m not a very good coin-flipper,” Coffey said. “I’m like 0 for my last 4, so I’m going to have an assistant coach flip the coin for me.”

The win at Marist was quite a resume-builder. The War Eagles have won 12 state championships, and the 2011 team was ranked nationally in the top 10 in at least one poll. But it was the young program, less than a decade old, that pulled out the huge and harrowing game three win.

Veterans took the lead in the top of the seventh with two outs, thanks in part to a pair of Marist errors to go on grounders by Korben Hollensteiner and Gabe Holt, with a stolen base in there.

Then Kyle Parry gave up a leadoff double in the bottom of the seventh. A bunt gave the War Eagles a runner on third with one out. But Parry got a great catch in left and throw home from Derek Wylie, and then induced an infield pop to end it.

“It was certainly the price of admission for game three,” Coffey said. “Marist is just a tremendous, tremendous, tremendous team, one of the best we’ve ever played.”

Regardless of Coffey’s inability to call the right side of the coin when Veterans is the same seed as an opponent, the Warhawks are playing on.

Up next is Woodward, located in the shadows of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, in the quarterfinals with the series starting at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

The win over Marist no doubt helped the Veterans girls soccer team feel a little better, despite its 2-0 loss Wednesday to St. Pius X. Veterans has had two of its past three seasons ended by Marist, including in the 2014 title game.

But that conversation can come after the baseball season.

“Our mentality the whole year is that we’re going to go out and do our thing and let the chips fall where they may from there,” Coffey said. “If we do our thing and play Veterans High School baseball, I feel we match up pretty well with most everybody in the state.”

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 6:35 PM with the headline "Veterans becoming a master of winning on the road."