You won’t find Commerce High School’s baseball team blaming last week on the weather. But it sure is tempting.
The Tigers (12-5, 9-3 in Region 8-A) held the defending state champion Hebron Christian Academy to a 1-0 lead through four innings last Tuesday when the skies opened, the rains unleashed and the game washed out.
The teams met again the following day and started from scratch. This time the Lions (14-2, 10-0) were the ones to pour it on — defeating the Tigers 6-1 at home. The loss ended Commerce’s winning streak at nine.
Another loss followed the letdown, with the Tigers falling to an average Athens Christian team (5-6 overall, 4-6) the next day. The score ended 2-1, a fear coach Steven Cotrell sensed entering the contest.
“I was praying for rain,” he said, of his feeling before the game. “I knew it would happen.”
Cotrell said his team never recovered from the adrenaline rush that lifted and let down the Tigers before the “storm came and just crashed it.”
Nearly 10 scouts circled Tiger Field during the first contest against Hebron, which featured a pitching duel between the Lions’ Jordan Hillyer and the Tigers’ Colton Davis.
Hebron ace, Mason Felt, pitched the following day. The left-hander helped silence the Tigers’ fiery bats. He recorded 16 strikeouts and allowed just two hits and one walk in the outing.
Cody Streetman, who’s hitting above .500, prevented a Commerce shutout with his solo home run at the end of the game. By then it was too late.
Fielding errors — six total in the third and fourth innings — hurt a strong effort by starting pitcher Robert Hayes, who allowed just four hits to the Lions.
Despite the drop in talent, hits were hard to come by against Athens Christian as well, Cotrell said. Even the Tigers’ strongest hitters failed to convert runs out of bases-loaded opportunities.
“It was set up for us to win the game,” Cotrell said, mentioning one situation favorable to Commerce at the end of the game. “In baseball, you can’t just turn it on all of a sudden…I love them all, but it’s the time of the season for them to take it or let it go down the drain.”
Commerce losses to Hebron and Athens Christian, along with George Walton Academy’s recent wins, have dropped Commerce to Region 8’s No. 3 seed behind GWA (16-3, 12-1) and Hebron.
Even that place could be in jeopardy, Cotrell warns his team, since most of the season’s critical second half remains.
While the Tigers will face George Walton Academy again this Friday (April 13), a win against the Bulldogs in Monroe won’t matter much if Commerce does not secure wins in the majority of its remaining region contests, Cotrell said.
“We have to find our second wind,” the coach said. “It’s a big week.”
Last week’s results
Wednesday, April 4
Hebron Christian 6, Commerce 1
CHS—Josh Swistak 1-3, Cody Streetman 1-3, HR
Thursday, April 5
Athens Christian 2, Commerce 1
CHS—Streetman 1-3, Chandler Rogers 1-4, Colton Davis 2-3, Keenan Lord 1-2
