Veterans looking to break through to baseball title series
The Veterans Warhawks will look to make program history Monday when they open a GHSA Class AAAA baseball semifinal series at Locust Grove.
Veterans (23-9) has advanced to this stage for the third season in a row but has yet to progress to the championship series. The Warhawks were swept by eventual Class AAAA champion Carrollton two seasons ago in a tightly contested series before falling to Whitewater in two games a year ago.
Locust Grove (29-4-1) has followed a similar track, but the Wildcats have already made a little history of their own. Since the program began in 2009, Locust Grove has been a perennial playoff participant and has advanced to the quarterfinals three times. This is the first season the Wildcats have been been left standing among the final four.
After falling to LaGrange in the third game of the season, Locust Gove went on a 22-game unbeaten streak to close out the regular season, but the playoffs have proven to be a challenge. The Wildcats have dropped one game in each of their three playoff series to this point, forcing must-win Game 3s in each of those rounds.
“They have a lot of good arms and a lot of good pitching,” Veterans head coach David Coffey said. “They’re fundamentally sound. I kind of look at them and see the opposite of us because we’re an offensive-based team and they’re a pitching and defensive-based team. It should be a very interesting series if we can pitch and play defense like I know we can.”
Veterans has enjoyed a considerably smoother ride in postseason action. The Warhawks swept Burke County easily to open the playoffs before outlasting Marist in round two and sweeping Woodward Academy in the quarterfinals.
Veterans has rode the back of an offense that has scored nine or more runs in five of seven playoff games to this point.
“The kids are really buying into the offensive approach,” Coffey said. “As long as we can attack the baseball, we’ll be in good shape. When we sit back and kind of wait for something good to happen instead of making something good happen, that’s when we kind of get in trouble.”
Perhaps what gives the Warhawks their most confidence at this point, however, is that they’ve shown they can win in different ways. Locked in a pitcher’s duel at Marist in a must-win Game 3, Veterans showed a lot of moxie in capitalizing on two Marist errors to push across the eventual winning run in the top of the seventh in a 2-1 game. After Kyle Parry surrendered a leadoff double in the bottom half, the Warhawks got an outstanding catch and throw from Derek Wylie in right field to preserve the lead.
“We’re capable of shutting somebody out, but we’re also capable of scoring 10 or 11 runs on an opponent, as well,” Coffey said. “Sometimes it depends on whatever team shows up, but if our pitchers continue to go out and do what they’ve done, I feel good about whoever we play.”
Where Veterans should also feel good is on the road. Accustomed to hosting more often than not thanks to a long string of region title victories, the Warhawks are actually 3-0 under Coffey in road playoff series, including 2-0 this season.
Veterans beat Lanier on the road in 2014 to reach the semifinals and followed that up with a triumph over St. Pius X on the road in last year’s quarterfinals.
The Veterans-Locust Grove winner will take on the Buford-Eastside winner in the championship series.
“Road warriors,” Coffey said. “The previous five years, we haven’t been on the road a whole lot. Obviously it’s kind of tough to go into somebody’s backyard and play on their field, but it’s also kind of a release for the players and the coaches in that the responsibility of getting the field ready and making sure everybody is lined up to do this or that is gone. All of that pressure is gone, and you just have to show up and play baseball. These players are very good about showing up and getting their minds right ready to play.”
This story was originally published May 15, 2016 at 7:13 PM.