Tattnall, Savannah Christian in a rematch that has 'epic' written on it

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          Tattnall is where it tends to be in mid to late May:

          Owning around 30 or so wins and within reach of a state championship.

          “We’re 33-3,” Tattnall head coach Joey Hiller said. “We’ve played pretty good ball this year.”

          Yet the past two weeks have been a little concerting for the Trojans. Memorable, concerting, humbling, and confidence-boosting.

          They were shut out at home, in a playoff game.

          They lost the first series of a playoff game, at home.

          They’ve had big offensive innings, only to be countered by giving up big innings.

          And in the past six games, they’ve given up 15 unearned runs and had only two games out of six with less than two errors.

          Nevertheless, here is Tattnall in the GHSA state championship series again.

          The Trojans take on Savannah Christian in the Class A-Private series starting with a 5 p.m. doubleheader on Tuesday.

          Tattnall beat Savannah Christian 2-0 at home on March 2, Brooks Gorman sizzling with an eight-strikeout, one-walk one-hitter in which he threw only 88 pitches.

          And, of course, the two played for the 2017 title on the same Grayson Stadium field, the Raiders getting the game-winning hit from now Jarrett Brown to sweep the Trojans.

          The Trojans were a pretty sporty 29-1 entering the quarterfinals against Strong Rock Christian. And Tattnall went from a clean-playing, efficient team to a gritty, find-a-way-to-win unit, something the Trojans have rarely been because they’ve rarely needed to be.

          “I don’t ever remember us losing a Game 1 of a series and winning that series until this past week,” Hiller said of the 9-8 loss to Hebron Christian, a team that was only a few games over .500 entering the series. “We’ve given up some really big innings, and that’s one of the things we pride ourselves on, avoiding giving up big innings.”

          For a team used to going a week without giving up a touchdown worth of runs, Tattnall watched Strong Rock get a four-run first in Game 3, and Hebron Christian come up with seven in the sixth inning of that series opener, the loss, and six in the fourth inning of Game 3.

          Hiller recalls losing the first game of a semifinal series to King’s Ridge in 2015. The last time he can remember losing a series opener at home? 2006, to Southland, way back in the GISA days.

          Hiller credits the opponents for pushing the Trojans, but the Trojans are used to being pushed this late in the season.

          Yet the Trojans became fairly blue-collar and gritty, and found ways to win when they weren’t on their game.

          “I want us to play clean baseball,” Hiller said. “In baseball, at this point, you’ve got to make the plays, but the will to win can overcome some mistakes.

          “I’m not saying that other teams in the past lacked that, but I think last year we won and in 2016 we won just because we were the better team and had played clean baseball.”

          In last year’s quarterfinal and semifinal series, Tattnall outscored Wesleyan 22-5 in two games and FPD 23-4 in two games, then beat Prince Avenue Christian 11-0 and 5-2 in the championship.

          Strong Rock’s 11 runs in the first two games of this year’s quarterfinal matched how many runs Wesleyan, FPD, and Strong Rock scored in six.

          “I think it’s good to hit some adversity along the way, so you learn how to respond to it,” Hiller said. “I think this team has a really good personality.”

          All sorts of Trojans came up with the play or pitch in those rugged quarterfinal and semifinal series, including Trey Ham moving from the catcher’s box to the pitcher’s mound for the second time in two weeks and second time in a few years.

          Hiller hoped the Trojans would have some adversity early in the season as he and the staff looked to find out a little more about the team.

          “The first two or three weekends, instead of three games, we were playing one,” Hiller said. “It never forced us to grow up a little bit and get some guys on the mound.”

          So there were some mild concerns even as the Trojans rolled. Then Dawson Brown, Tattnall’s starting second baseman and a key pitcher, went down during a spring break game with an ankle injury, and was out until the quarterfinal series.

          Mixing and matching worked, and while the last two series may have been rocky, the Trojans again appear to be very prepared for what’s ahead in a championship series even if they’re not currently playing their best.

          It’s unlikely Savannah Christian is buying much thought of Tattnall being in a slump.

          Seven regulars are hitting .300 or better with three – B.J. Spears, Brooks Gorman, and Trey Ham – cracking the .400 mark.

          Spears leads the way, at leadoff, with a .455 average, 51 hits in 36 games, a whopping 60 runs, and he’s been hit 13 times. And struck out six times in 112 at-bats.

          Gorman has the top average at .467 and is second with six homers and 46 RBI to go with being the pitching staff’s ace at 14-1 with a .947 ERA. And Ham is at .411 with seven homers and 48 RBI.

          Miles Morris is a glue player who’s also hitting. 365 and is second with 43 runs.

          Five pitchers have at least three wins, five different pitchers have a save, and this is a staff that has 261 strikeouts to 87 walks in 223.1 innings, and a team ERA of 1.35.

          The normal Tattnall talent also has the ability to win when not playing normal Tattnall baseball.

          “We know we’ve found a different level of toughness and intensity,” Hiller said. “And that’s good.”

          Hiller sure would like to see a little more of the latter Tuesday. Savannah Christian is 28-7 and is 6-2 in May. The Raiders’ other losses have been to 5A champ Loganville, Locust Grove, Avant Garde (Fla.), Calvary Day – which broke Tattnall’s 30-game winning streak early in the season – Savannah Country Day and Wesleyan.

          The aforementioned Brown has signed with Georgia Southern, while junior Kyle Hilton is a Georgia Tech commit.

          “They’re quality,” he said. “They’re a lot like us. For the most part, they do the little things riht. They’re very meticulous in how they do things. They’re very well-coached, they’ve got good athletes.”

          Savannah Christian lost the opener of its semifinal series with Wesleyan, 14-2, and won two straight, including a game-tying triple to set up the walk-off wild pitch in the finale.

          Throw in that relief appearance by Ham in the huge seventh inning of the third game against Hebron Christian, and this series could go awhile.

          “They know how to compete,” Hiller said of the similar-to-the-Trojans Raiders. “We were the No. 1 team in the power rankings, they were the No. 2 team in the power rankings.”