The Coffee Trojans have won four playoff games this postseason. Starter Gavin McElroy has been the winning pitcher in three of them. Friday night, McElroy made it a hat trick in game one of the Trojans’ Sweet 16 matchup against the South Paulding Spartans, throwing a five-hit complete game enroute to a 7-2 win. Coffee followed with a 4-3 win in game two to advance to the Elite Eight.
The threat of bad weather cast a specter over the scheduled doubleheader. Though the two teams were able to get the games in, they had to be moved from Charles Wilson Field at Coffee High School to George Cook Stadium on the South Georgia State College campus.
Crider Field, the playing surface inside the stadium, is a formidable place to play. The dimensions are big and the cavernous outfield turns home runs into doubles (or singles) with impunity. In fact, the Trojans hit several balls that would have likely been home runs at their home field that dropped benignly in the outfield.
Extra base hits – certainly. But nothing adds to the playoff vibe like a well-placed home run. And that just wasn’t going to happen at SGSC.
The stadium, however, gave as much as it took away. In this case, it was shelter. A good portion of the stands is covered, providing fans with relief in the event of rain – and rain it did.
Despite periodic precipitation, the Trojans and Spartans were able to get in both games without delay.
In game one, Coffee did all of its scoring in two innings – the third and fourth. South Paulding, meanwhile, managed a run in the second and another in the sixth.
In the third, the Trojans scored all of their runs with two outs. Coffee loaded the bases with three straight walks. Then two consecutive strikeouts put the Trojans’ chances of scoring in jeopardy. McElroy helped his own cause with a big single to center on the first pitch he saw, driving in Eli Wood and Reid Harden. Taeven Harden followed with a triple that scored Ben Fussell and Morgan Lewis. Coffee headed into the fourth inning with a 4-1 lead.
In the fourth, the Trojans again scored every run with two outs. But they chose a little different path this time. The first two Coffee hitters struck out. Reid Harden and Fussell followed with singles. Then Jimmy Timothy doubled, bringing in Reid and Fussell. Not to be outdone, Barrett Harrell also singled, scoring Timothy and giving the Trojans a 7-1 lead.
In the sixth, the Spartans added a run courtesy of a Coffee error.
For the Trojans, nobody had more than one hit. Timothy, McElroy, and Taeven Harden drove in two. Timothy and Taeven had Coffee’s only extra-base hits.
McElroy threw another gem of a game, winning his third consecutive postseason start in the process. He scattered five hits across seven innings, giving up two runs (one earned) while striking out two. He didn’t walk anyone.
Coffee was never behind in game two. Still, there was a feeling of uncertainty to that game and South Paulding was never really out of it.
In the top of the second, Will Walker led off with a walk. Wood drove in the first run of the game with a single to right. Walker, who had moved all the way around to third thanks to two wild pitches, scored easily. A few batters later, Fussell scored Wood on a single and staked a 2-0 Trojan lead.
In the top of the fifth, Harrell led off with a triple. McElroy singled, scoring Harrell to give the Trojans a 3-1 advantage. In the top of the sixth, Fussell started things off with a double. A bunt moved him to third. Fussell scored on single by Harrell to give Coffee a 4-2 advantage.
The Spartans made things interesting in the seventh when Damian Jones hit a two-out double to left, scoring Mason Luce and getting South Paulding to within one run. However, the Spartans’ night and season ended with a ground ball to Wood, who was pitching. Wood made the play and flipped it to first baseman Carter McMillan for the third out of the game.
Fussell was 3-3 with an RBI, a run, and two walks (one of which was intentional). Two of his hits were doubles. Harrell went 2-3 with a run and an RBI. Wood and Reid Harden both had two hits as well. Reid doubled while Harrell tripled.
Three Coffee hurlers shared the pitching duties. Evan Lingenfelter started and went three innings, giving up one run on three hits. He struck out one and walked two. Will Walker (2IP, 2H, 1R, 1BB, 2K) and Wood (2IP, 3H, 1R, 2K) handled the other four innings.
The Trojans escaped the two games without doing much damage to their pitching staff. In game two, none of the three threw more than 43 total pitches. McElroy was efficient in game one with an 87-pitch night.
Next Friday, Coffee will be on the road again. Thankfully, though, it’s not a bad trip. The Trojans will travel to Brunswick to face the Brunswick Pirates, who beat Milton Friday night 15-5 in game one and 15-2 in game two. The game has a little extra local interest – Brunswick’s head coach is Greg Roberts, a Coffee High graduate and former CCA head coach. Coach Roberts won CCA’s first-ever state baseball championship in 2010.
Coffee High School will release details of the series once they are finalized.
