Here’s the great thing about inconsistency: When things are going poorly, you can feel pretty good that better times are just around the corner.
That’s exactly what baseball coach is expecting when his club lines up against Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) nemesis Drake in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division 3 tournament Wednesday at 5 p.m. in San Anselmo.
The teams met three times in MCAL play and the Red-tailed Hawks scored a grand total of one run, losing 1-0 at home, 3-1 at Drake and 6-0 in the playoffs.
Needless to say, Terry wasn’t thrilled to hear his 11th-seeded club would be paired once again with the sixth-seeded Pirates. And he’s guessing Drake coach Adam Farb probably feels the same way.
“I think both teams were looking forward to playing someone else,” Terry said. “I told the guys: ‘If you’re not excited to play Drake, then win the game and we’ll play someone else.’ And who knows? Maybe they look past us and we capitalize on that.”
One thing that surely will be different about the fourth encounter will be the bats. The MCAL voted to allow metal bats in NCS play, and in fact voted unanimously approved the return of metal bats in league games next season.
Terry is hoping that can help turn things around for his club.
“We can get on base. We can steal bases. But we have trouble getting that big hit,” he observed. “Hopefully with the metal bats, that could make a difference.”
And then there’s the inconsistency thing.
“We’re a Jekyll and Hyde team,” Terry analyzed. “Seeing that we’re coming off a bad game (the 6-0 shellacking in the playoffs), I’m think it’s time for a good game. We did play well against Justin-Siena in the play-in game (a 5-0 win) before we played Drake.”
The Hawks will counter Drake’s great pitching with a pretty good pitcher of their own in .
“We’re all about pitching and defense. I’m hoping to see that (Wednesday),” Terry said.
“We talked about pride (at practice this week). We don’t want to lose four times to the same team. To beat them would be big for us going into next season and facing them again.”
The winner will advance to a second-round matchup later in the week against either third-seeded Acalanes of Lafayette or 14th-seeded John F. Kennedy of Fremont.
