Veterans’ Dillon Harris brings in go-ahead run to complete comeback against Tift County

KATHLEEN — With the postseason starting next week, the comeback and clutch time experience Veterans got on Tuesday is invaluable.

The Warhawks (13-13) beat Tift County (11-16) 11-8 in a come-from-behind victory that featured an inexperienced pitching staff and a slow offensive start against a good hitting team in the Blue Devils.

Veterans will enter next week’s GHSA state tournament as a four seed, meaning they’ll face one of the state’s region champions on the road. Learning how to come back and hold a lead is a big deal for head coach Jeff Sans’ club.

“I think it’s huge. Last week we lost two games, one in the eighth [inning] and one in the seventh [inning]. I think we’ve lost three or four like that in the region,” Sans said. “We’re just having a hard time holding on to leads late. Part of that’s youth, part of that’s not developing the right habits. But just to be able to do that tonight I think’s big for their confidence.”

In the first inning Tift County took freshman Bentley Haines for a double and home run, and they did it again in the third inning to take a 5-2 lead.

The ‘Hawks didn’t generate any response through the first three innings with most of their at-bats ending with a fly out. Even the first two outs of the fourth, their most productive offensive inning, were in the air.

“I think in the third and the fourth we made zero adjustments,” Sans said. “The guy was a soft lefty and we were out front on everything, and that’s what we challenged them with. This is an opportunity to learn how to make adjustments in game, and they did in the fifth and sixth. [They] started hitting more gap to gap type stuff, barreling some up.”

A switch flipped when Kason Flowers took to the plate with two outs. He took strike one swinging and whiffed on a changeup for strike two, but the next changeup he sent flying up the middle to deal the first blow to the Blue Devils’ five-run lead.

From that point on the ‘Hawks started putting balls on the ground, or at least low enough in the air to avoid the outfield’s gloves.

Steven Hafeychuck (along with some errors by the defense) dealt the most damage with a single to left field. An errant throw from the catcher back to third base scored three runs, including Hafeychuck.

Ethan Scott completed the cycle with a ground ball to right field to knot the game at seven.

The Blue Devils’ leadoff in the sixth inning walked and scored two at-bats later but Dillon Harris’ single in the bottom reclaimed Veterans’ lead for good.

The ‘Hawks put three pitchers on the mound who had maybe a handful of innings of varsity experience. Haines and juniors Allen Slocum and Jackson Eaton.

Haines pitched for 3.1 innings, and 71% of his pitches were strikes, but Tift County had seen him too many times by that point.

So in came Slocum who walked his first two batters and earned a mound visit from Sans.

“I just wanted to know what he felt comfortable with,” Sans said on the conversation. “Usually when they say ‘I feel comfortable with this pitch and this pitch,’ it puts them in their head, ‘I can throw these two.’”

Two fly balls did score two runs after that, but Slocum looked more comfortable and was able to get through 2.1 innings before Eaton came in to close.

Eaton got the last out of the sixth and went three-up-three-down with two strikeouts in the seventh to finish the game.

“I thought they did a good job. Tift County can hit,” Sans said of the trio. “They need to spot up their pitches a little bit better, but they were around the zone and did a good job, and that’s what we asked for.”

UP NEXT

Veterans heads down to Tifton for a doubleheader against the Blue Devils on April 17.