North Pike baseball is opening the playoffs with a rematch against Northeast Jones in a three-game series scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Friday at North Pike.
Game 2 is at Northeast Jones at 6 p.m. Saturday. If necessary, Game 3 is at North Pike at 6 p.m. Monday.
The Jaguars (21-4, 12-3) beat Northeast Jones in the second round of the playoffs last season 2-1 with all three games being won at home.
“It’s always good to have home field advantage,” North Pike head coach George Lott said about having home field advantage once again.
In Game 1 of last year’s series, a Northeast Jones runner injured shortstop Ben Coney’s knee illegally going out of the baseline trying to break up a double play. Coney came back in Game 3 and hit a big two-out, two run single. He came in to pitch and retired the final two batters for the game.
“We haven’t even talked about it,” Lott said about Coney being taken out last season. “We’ve just got to come out and play baseball. What happened last year was last year. We’ve got to take care of business this year.”
Looking ahead, Lott said Northeast Jones has two of the best pitchers his team will see all season.
Both the Jaguars and Tigers have most of their players returning from last season.
“They’re very similar to last year,” Lott said. “They didn’t lose, but a couple seniors. Their pitching is outstanding this year. They’ve got two guys that throw in the mid-to-upper 80s. One of them’s got a 0.57 ERA. That is definitely their strength. They hit the ball very well. It’s going to be a very tough test.”
Lott said the Tigers put up a lot of runs in one of the tougher divisions in District 4A.
“They haven’t hit many home runs, but they have a ton doubles and triples,” he said. “They hit the ball extremely hard.”
The Jaguars finished second in Region 6-4A this season.
“We’ve got a lot of depth,” Lott said. “I’d say our biggest strength is our bunt game. We have played really good defense all year, so I guess that’s one of our strengths.”
Lott said some of his best bunters are Matthew Phillips, Dalton Reed, Tyler Alexander, Brantley Hughes and Coney.
Coney, Cade Killings-worth, Connor Travis, Reed, Jacob Gill and Hughes have all pitched for North Pike this season.
Lott has not determined the rotation for the upcoming series, but expects Coney to start in Game 2. He said anyone could be on the mound in Game 1.
“I’d like to see who matches up well,” Lott said. “Going over there, they have a pretty rowdy place to play in. Right now, I was kind of leaning on Ben pitching there because of his experience. He’s been there and done that, but still I’m not 100 percent positive, which way.”
North Pike went to the rubber games in the first two round of the playoffs in 2015 and the head coach is looking to avoid that this season.
“I’d just assume win every one of them,” he said. “You win the series, you win the series whether it’s in two games or three games. It helps my heart when we don’t go to three.”
North Pike lost its last three district games to Region 6-4A Champion Lawrence County.
“We’ve got to start hitting the ball better than we have,” Lott said. “The last couple of weeks, we haven’t swung the bats very well. We’re not striking out, but we’re not barreling the ball up. That’s going to be a big key.”
The Jaguars were eliminated by St. Stanislaus in three games in the South State Championship last year and have not forgotten.
“It always is when you look back and say we were basically one game away from playing for a state championship or three games away from winning a state championship,” Lott said. “It’s a long, grainy process in the public schools in the playoffs. There’s four rounds for South State, five rounds to win the whole thing.
“You almost play as many games then as you do the regular season.”
