THOMASVILLE – Thomas County Central had their first real test on the diamond on Wednesday night as they took on Chiles. In a game that Central head coach Ryan Strickland compared to a playoff game, the Jackets faced pressure and tough defensive situations as they took a 5-0 loss.
The game was a close one most of the way with both teams putting lefties on the mound and both pitchers getting it done for their squads. The Timberwolves managed to put a run on the board in the top of the fourth, but they were never too threatening until the sixth. They rattled off three hits in the inning, bringing three runners home to make it 4-0.
However, Chiles’ nine hits in the game may be a bit misleading for anyone simply checking the boxscore. Most of those hits came on bloopers and slow rollers that put Thomas County Central in a tough spot defensively. Truly the Timberwolves only had three or four good hits, but it was enough for five RBIs on their way to a shutout win.
“It was a great game until the sixth inning. They spun the game on us and got a little fast. They kind of went away with it there, but that’s baseball. It happens,” Strickland said. “That was a great opportunity for us to be in right there to learn and to handle that now because that was playoff baseball right there. That’s a very good team over there, an older team, a veteran team. We’ve got sophomores that are going to have to handle those situations.”
Central wasn’t so lucky at the plate, recording just two hits in the game from Eli Taylor and Braden Payne. They had a couple of chances to score, but were unable to bring any runs home, stranding multiple runners on base. Chiles pitchers were solid, especially their lefty starter Andrew Colombo, who threw five innings and recorded sevens strikeouts.
“You throw strikes you get people out. They didn’t have very many hits either until going into that sixth inning,” said Strickland. “Our lefty did a great job on the mound as well. You throw strikes, you get outs. It’s hard to hit a baseball.”
Despite the 5-0 loss, Strickland believes this is a learning opportunity. Chiles is a very good and experienced baseball team. According to Maxpreps, 11 of their 18 rostered players are seniors, including Colombo, the Timberwolves starting pitcher who was touching 80 on some of his pitches. It was, as Strickland said, a playoff type of game and one that his younger team can learn from.
“It’s just how to bounce back. They’re going to take what happened and we’re going to talk about what we’re going to do next time,” Strickland said. “That pressure is what you need. That’s the first time we really got a quality pitcher, quality hitting team out there and they put the pressure on us and that’s what we need to see.”
Central’s next game will take them east as they travel to face Lowndes February 27 before returning home to take on Bainbridge the following day. Both games are scheduled to begin at 5:45 p.m.