The Commerce Tigers wrapped up summer baseball play this past weekend, taking part in the Jackson County Shootout tournament.
The tournament started out well for the Tigers, as they bested Oglethorpe County 9-3 on Thursday. They then fell to North Oconee on Friday, 11-1 in a game that saw only two Commerce varsity players take to the field.
On Saturday, the Tigers faced Oconee County, losing 9-7 with the bases loaded in the seventh inning. The tournament ended against Elbert County later that day. After hanging tough in a 3-3 contest until the fifth inning, Elbert County opened up a lead late and went on to win 8-3.
CHS head baseball coach Steve Cotrell said summer play went well.
“We played a lot of young kids with the varsity and with the younger teams,” he said. “We really don’t look at the score a whole lot. We’ll take one or two games a week in and try to win, and the others we’ll play some kids and see which ones can help us. The summer went fairly well.”
Cotrell said there was not any one point over the summer that all of the projected varsity or J.V. team members were at the games.
“It was a lot of mix and match and some kids playing against older kids just to see how well they competed,” he said. “There were some bright spots and there were some spots we’ve got to work on too.”
Cotrell said that out of the last ten years of coaching, this past summer was probably the best for getting a read on what his team will be looking at going into the spring.
“Some guys I wasn’t sure could help us on the varsity, but I think they’re going to be able to help us reach certain goals, which will be to our benefit in the long run,” he added.
Cotrell said the team’s downfall over the last few years has been a lack of depth.
“When you’re counting on eight or nine guys to play every role there is, it gets tough, especially when you’re playing against some of the private schools that are sending 20 kids out there,” he said. “I feel like we’re going to be about 14 or 15 deep, so I won’t be scared to play any of them. That’s going to be fun.”
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Commerce News.
