After dropping their first league series against Camas High School, the Battle Ground Tigers baseball squad is looking ahead in the competitive 4A Greater St. Helens League one game at a time.
The Tigers’ series with the Papermakers began on Monday, April 14, when a seventh-inning comeback was squashed as they dropped game one 10-9. On Tuesday, April 15, Battle Ground evened out the series a game a piece with an 11-5 victory. But on Thursday, April 17, to decide the first league series, the Tigers had a 3-1 lead at one point but ultimately lost 9-4.
Battle Ground head coach Seth Johnson wasn’t pleased with the performance in the entire three-game series with Camas.
“If you’re just a fan coming and watching both of these teams and you expect them to play good games, it was bad baseball across the board,” he said after the April 17 loss.
The Tigers accumulated six errors in game one, won the error battle with two compared to Camas’ five in the win on April 15, and then added three errors in the third matchup.
“It’s hard to get wins in this league,” Johnson said. “So it’s going to be a grind every single time, and you have to be able to roll with the mistakes and not let them compound, and today, late in the game, we just let it compound.”
The next opponent for the Tigers is in the same spot at 1-2 after the first series. The Skyview Storm dropped two games to the Union Titans last week. Battle Ground and Skyview faced off on Monday, April 21, and Tuesday, April 22, but results were unavailable at press time. The series decider is slated for Thursday, April 24 at 4:30 p.m. at Skyview High School.
“Being able to take a series one game at a time, and that’s how it is with this league,” Johnson said. “I mean, everyone’s pretty even, so it’s kind of like a coin flip, so it’s just one game at a time.”
Johnson said a highlight of this season so far has been watching the team improve with enthusiasm and supporting teammates through the ups and downs.
“It’s been actually great to see the players supporting each other much more, whereas before, it was the coaches trying to get the team involved. Now we have players getting the team up and that’s fun. That part of baseball is fun to see, you know, them supporting each other. Now it’s them taking ownership of that, continuing that and understanding the game.”
