Enterprise, Elba baseball teams make high school playoffs

While the Enterprise Wildcats and Elba Tigers both qualified for post-season play, the paths the two will follow are quite different: area champion Enterprise is at home against Robert E. Lee today, while Elba, an area co-champion, is on the road in Excel.

By Ricky Adams Ledger Correspondent
Published: April 17, 2009

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The future starts today for high school baseball teams across Alabama as the first of five playoff rounds kicks off the post-season with doubleheader action.

“I got a chance to see Lee play earlier in the week and I was impressed by what I saw,” said veteran EHS Head Coach Shawn Gilmer. “We have our work cut out for us, but we have a team that knows how to win.

“We’ve won 20 games this year and we won the area championship. We’ve faced several top-notch, ranked teams and done well. I’m expecting good things from our guys. We’re capable of playing with anyone; it’s just a matter of doing it.

“Naturally, pitching, physical and mental errors, and making the most of opportunities as they unfold will determine the outcome of this series. I fully expect us to win.”

Enterprise and Lee are scheduled for a 4 p.m. first pitch; the doubleheader’s nightcap begins shortly after the conclusion of the opener.

Saturday’s “if-necessary” game is scheduled for 1 p.m.

All Enterprise-Lee games will be at Lint Warren Field in Donaldson Park.

The Tigers’ Bryan Peacock, in his first year as head coach at Elba High, knows his charges have their work cut out for them, but he doesn’t believe the Coffee Countians can be counted out.

“I know Excel is solid defensively,” Peacock said. “I know they have a third baseman who’s being recruited, and I know they hit the ball really well, and there is no apparent weakness in their line-up.”

Peacock said beating an undisputed area champion on the road is the Tigers’ gameplan.

“Baseball is a funny game,” he said. “It’s the ‘any team can beat any other team on a given day’ thing, especially in the playoffs where every team is good.

“What matters today is our pitching ‘on,’ is our defense ‘on,’ and is our hitting ‘on.” Anything can and does happen in this game; that’s part of what makes baseball special.”

Sweeping today’s doubleheader in Excel would make it even more special.

Action gets under way at 4 p.m. in Excel.