Sports

Flint River puts Terrell on ropes

• The No. 1 Terrell Academy baseball team must win two games today at home against Flint River to advance to the Class A state title game after dropping Game 1 in the best-of-three series Friday.

Derek Barichello

DAWSON — The Terrell Academy baseball season changed right along with the skies Friday.

Before the first pitch of the GISA Class A Final Four opener, the sun shone on an Eagles dugout looking to bring home their school’s first baseball championship since 1980.

But while Flint River Academy’s Jay Hamlett recorded the final out of a dominating performance on the mound for an easy, 6-1, Wildcats win, clouds covered up the sun and cast a shadow over not only the team, but its entire season.

Now, the Eagles must win both games of a doubleheader today at 1 p.m. in Dawson if they want to reach the state championship, and possibly meet fellow Region 3 foe Westwood, who also needs to win Saturday against David Emanuel to advance.

“We have to hope our bats come to life,” Eagles coach Dwayne Suggs said.

“If they don’t ... we’ll be done.”

Unfortunately for Terrell Academy fans, the gnats had more bite than the Eagles offense Friday.

For a team ranked No. 1 in the GISA Class A Coaches’ Poll — and one that outscored its opponents, 66-10, hitting .525 in the playoffs thus far — the Eagles managed only four hits in the loss and fell victim to 11 strikeouts.

Their lone run came in the sixth inning, already trailing 4-0, when Christopher Hunter drove in Chandler Farley, who reached on a fielder’s choice.

“I think we might have come out with a big head, but they showed us,” said Hunter, who also pitched five innings of relief, allowing three earned runs on four hits (two of them home runs to Chet Harris) and two walks.

“We’ll have to get our heads ready (today) and come out ready to work.”

Not only was there a lack of hitting by the Eagles, but Suggs’ biggest concern about control issues with his pitching staff heading into the series came to fruition.

Eagles ace Farley, who took the loss, walked three in the second inning as the Wildcats scored a pair of runs on one hit and an error to take an early 2-0 lead.

Then Farley walked the first two Wildcats hitters in the next inning — and subsequently was relieved by Hunter. One of those runners went on to score as the Eagles fell behind, 3-0, without recording a single hit.

“We put ourselves behind the 8-ball with those walks,” Suggs said. “And against a pitcher like that, it made it really hard for us to comeback.”

On a positive note, the Eagles have seen the best the Wildcats have to offer in pitching and have all of their own arms available for today’s possible doubleheader in Dawson.

According to Suggs, Brady Copeland, who was last week’s Game 1 winner against Robert Toombs Christian, will take the ball in Game 2 for the Eagles as both ace Farley and Hunter are still available to pitch today.

As for the Wildcats, coach Bobby Bishop said he will likely throw his No. 2 — big hitter Harris — to try to close out the series.

“Our pitching drops off a little bit now,” Bishop said. “We’re going to have to hit the ball better than we did (Friday) if we’re going to finish the deal. And they’re deep on pitching and we know they can really hit, so I would say it’s nice we won Game 1, but we still have the hardest task ahead of us.”

Despite the challenge in front of the Eagles, they are still confident they can keep the dream alive with a pair of wins today and go for their first state title in 28 years.

“We still have a very positive attitude,” Suggs said. “Nobody is hanging their head down. We’re not done yet.”

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