‘We’re making it work.’ Tates Creek baseball and softball playing whole season on the road.
Whenever talking about the grittiness of any of Tates Creek High School’s athletics teams, the phrase “Centre Parkway Built” often comes up, a mantra for their blue-collar work ethic with a nod to the school’s thoroughfare.
But this season, for its baseball and softball teams, it’s what’s not “built” that’s making for an unusual campaign.
Both the Commodores’ baseball and softball teams are playing all their 2021 games on the road as their home fields have been torn out to make way for construction of the new high school, set to open in the fall of 2022.
“It’s challenging, but, huge props to Coach (Larry) Poynter and all the coaches. They’ve done everything they can to allow us to have practice,” senior Grant Stone said. “We all enjoy it. We only get about an hour, hour and a half every day, but we make do. We’re making it work.”
The Southeastern Babe Ruth League has been sharing its Veterans Park field with both Tates Creek baseball and softball, but time is limited. Poynter has practiced in the gym, at a hitting facility, at Veterans Park for an hour or so — anything to get time.
Softball coach Page Portman has gotten a little more creative — practicing Thursday in the middle school gym, whenever she can around lacrosse on the football field and, “I’ve practiced in the (school) foyer before,” Portman said, “a little bit of everywhere.”
“You can see it wear on the guys from time to time,” Poynter said. “Just not having a place to call home is a lot different, because what we had, we really liked. … This one year not having it is really testing us.”
Baseball stepping up in big moments
Coach Poynter’s team is off to a solid 9-6 start, including a 3-1 record in 43rd District play.
Stone helped the baseball Commodores gain a split with Lexington Catholic on Wednesday by pitching 6⅔ strong innings and delivering a bases-loaded, two-out, game-winning two-run single in the bottom of the seventh inning for a 4-3 victory on the Knights’ turf — a “home” win in the opponent’s venue.
“I knew I was going to win it,” Stone said afterward, noting he told assistant coach Luke Rouse he would do just that in the dugout as two batters ahead of him left the runners stranded. “He said ‘OK, do it.’ So, that’s what happened. … My mom always says I choke in those moments, so when I get in the car, I’m going to have to give her something for that one.”
Like every team experiencing high school baseball a year after the lost pandemic season, Tates Creek came into 2021 with a lot of unanswered questions.
“We had one guy coming back who had any experience from the 2019 state championship,” Poynter said. “We’ve had a lot of guys that are just new to varsity baseball, so it’s been an adjustment trying to get those guys up to the speed of the game, just how the game is played compared to JV ball.”
They are starting to get it now, and understanding that one bad at-bat, one bad game, isn’t devastating.
“Our team motto, and these guys embrace it, is ‘if it’s not your day be OK with the guy that’s playing, and then when it is your day, step up and be that guy,’” Poynter said. “These guys do a great job of that, and I couldn’t be more proud of them of the way they’re handling this season.”
Stone leads the team with a .317 batting average and has a 2.41 ERA on the mound. Senior outfielder Trenton Taylor provides a spark with a .303 average and 10 steals. Junior pitcher Hayden Dunham leads has a 3-0 record and a 0.84 ERA.
“I couldn’t ask for anything more from our team, you know,” Stone said. “We’re right in the position that we need to be.”
Softball rounding into shape
This should have been Portman’s second season as Creek’s coach, but instead its her first with COVID-19 protocols and no home field.
“It’s been something else,” she said. ‘Hopefully next year, it will be a breeze after being through these two things.”
After some early struggles, Portman’s Lady Commodores (6-8) are beginning to play like she thought they could. Creek has won three straight, including routs of district foes Paul Laurence Dunbar and Lexington Christian.
With just two seniors, Portman, like her school, is building for the future.
Sophomore Peyton Plotts leads the team with a .481 average and has power with four homers. Lead-off hitter Tinley Easton, only a freshman, leads off hitting .381. And junior pitcher Sophie Shelton steps in the circle most games and “she’s holding us together,” Portman said.
One-year sacrifice
The Tates Creek baseball, softball and state-of-the-art field house are all scheduled to be completed ahead of next season even though the new school building won’t open until fall.
The baseball field sits in practically the same footprint of its predecessor but will face toward the school rather than away from it. The softball field moves adjacent to baseball to share the field house and entry way.
“A one-year sacrifice for the betterment of the school system, we can’t complain about that,” Poynter said. “We excited about the things that are going to be new to us, and the new opportunity for all students at Tates Creek to be in a new building.”
