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Ira first baseman Drew Porter gets in position to field a ground ball during a game earlier this season. The Bulldogs will meet Borden County at 7 p.m. Friday at Hermleigh’s Cardinal Field in the Region 1-1A semifinals.
Ira vs. Borden County.
That is all Ira head baseball coach Toby Goodwin had to tell his team this week to get their attention. The two rivals will meet at 7 p.m. Friday at Cardinal Field in Hermleigh in a Region 1-1A semifinal game.
The winner will advance to the regional finals to play either Kress or New Home the week of May 27.
Goodwin said playing one game will get his team focused quickly, especially after going three games against Baird last weekend in the regional quarterfinals.
“It’s one game and that doesn’t hurt us. We know we are playing one game and know what we have to do,” he said. “I know it is kind of a bad thing to say this, but we have to play our best that day.”
Goodwin and Borden County head coach Bubba Edwards are no strangers to each other. Edwards was a former assistant coach on Goodwin’s football staff at Ira and a former head baseball coach for the Bulldogs.
“I am going to throw our best and I know coach Edwards will throw his best,” he said.
Ira won the two regular season games by the 10-run rule, but Goodwin said the games were closer than the final scores of 18-5 and 18-3.
“If you take the big innings we had away, those were some close games,” he said of a 15-run inning on March 19 and a 12-run inning on April 4. “That is part of the game.”
The Bulldogs hit .345 as a team in the two games with only three extra base hits. Ira’s hitters were disciplined at the plate, striking out only eight times in the two games.
Karson Valentine picked up both wins and allowed a combined eight hits and struck out 15 batters in the two games.
Goodwin is using last weekend’s series with Baird as a teaching experience. All three games were decided by one run and Ira had to use three different pitchers in the seventh inning of Game 3 to seal the win.
“Give Baird a lot of credit. They are a good ball team. The last two days and (Wednesday), I have been talking to the kids about being focused,” he said. “We were resilient and came back to win. We did what we had to do.”
The players, according to Goodwin, will need to use that mentality on Friday. From his years of coaching, he knows his team is playing at a special time.
“Our guys are hungry. It is late in the year,” he said. “Anytime you get three rounds deep in the playoffs, that is special.”