Tuesday, July 29, 2008
With the regular season wrapped up, the Tradewater Pirates will maintain a “do or die” mentality as the team takes to the field tonight in the K.I.T. playoffs.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to win now,” Tradewater coach Kurt Elbin said. “The only way to keep playing is to get a ‘W’. That’s our mindset. We’re going to do everything we can to win.”
The Pirates finished in first place with a 35-15 record and will host Marion tonight in the first game of a best-of-three series. Marion beat Union City 4-3 Monday night in a one-game playoff. The series will be begin and end, if necessary, at Tradewater with the second game at the lower seed’s site.
Although the Pirates have struggled playing at Marion, Tradewater will be prepared for either team, Elbin said.
“We don’t match up well with Marion at their place for some reason,” he said. “I don’t know why we can’t win there, but it’s going to be a different story in the playoffs.
“As long as we have home-field advantage and we’re playing the majority of the games at our place, I feel confident against any of the teams.”
Elbin will send pitcher Justin Long to the mound in the series opener. Long ended the regular season with a 4-4 record and 1.40 earned-run average. Long pitched 702⁄3 innings and maintained a 3:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (64:20), while allowing just 53 hits.
Following Long in the rotation will be Sean Mahley and George Hebert.
Hebert paced the league in wins at 8-0, and Elbin wants to use him as an ace up in his sleeve.
“I think we’re going to sit on George,” he said. “George is going to be our go-to guy throughout the playoffs. If we need a win, we’re going to give him the ball, but that’s how I feel about all our guys.”
Elbin might have a certain strategy in mind, but he asserted his confidence in each of his pitchers.
“I don’t care who we throw,” he said “We feel we have a chance to win.
“I think our pitching always gave us a chance to stay in the ballgame and they were consistently good.”
While Tradewater’s core of quality pitchers kept the Pirates in each game its hitters kept the team on top.
The Pirate batters picked up steam in the middle of the season and their improved play helped Tradewater separate itself from the rest of the league, Elbin said.
Tradewater’s hitting pushed the team over the top, but it was Elbin’s focus on pitching and strong defense that provided the foundation.
“I think from the very beginning that’s something I preached to the guys,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to pitch, throw strikes, and we have to be able to play defense.”
Elbin, an assistant coach at Thiel College (Pa.) during the school year, led the Pirates with his direction throughout the season, but the first-year Tradewater coach attributed the team’s success directly to his players.
“I think it’s definitely a reflection of the players that I got,” Elbin said. “Looking at what we’ve done throughout the summer, none of this would have been possible if I didn’t get quality players.”
Now that Tradewater is in the playoffs, Elbin will use his knowledge of his players’ talents and do whatever it takes to win.
“The biggest thing is we are going to remain aggressive in pitching, defensively and offensively and that’s how we got to where we are and we’re not going to change anything.”
Tradewater begins the first game of a best-of-three series against the winner of Marion/Union City at 7 p.m. today at Riverside Park.
The Pirates will avoid playing any of the league’s top three teams until the championship series.
In the other bracket the second-place Fulton Railroaders will play the winner of Monday night’s game between the last-place Farmington Firebirds and third-seed Owensboro Oilers. Although Farmington won just eight games during the regular season, the Firebirds swept Owensboro in a doubleheader on July 23.
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