GC Baseball: Tigers wrap up season (and oh, what a season), head for playoffs
Apr. 29—That's a wrap.
Corsicana's Tigers finished their regular season with a 1-0 victory over Terrell Saturday afternoon, but before they head for the 5A playoffs that begin at home at 7 p.m. Thursday against Sherman in a best-of-three Bi-District series, a lot of people are still shaking their heads asking how these Tigers played so well to get here.
If you saw this coming, text the Daily Sun with your pick in Saturday's Kentucky Derby so everyone can get on that horse.
The Tigers were never a long shot. No Heath Autrey team could ever be called a long shot. With Autrey it's kind of like the time Houston Oilers Coach Bum .Phillips was asked about Don Shula.
Bum sat back and said: "He can take hiss'n and beat your'n and then he can take your'n and beat hiss'n."
That's Autrey, who always finds ways to win, regardless of his talent or your talent. He's that good. And everyone who plays him knows it.
He took a team that had an avalanche of sophomores land on it, and not only won the district title, but went 11-1, losing only to Forney in an extra inning game.
The Tigers arrive at the playoffs with a 24-5 record after winning their fifth game in a row Saturday — and their fifth shutout in a row. They haven't given up a run since April 12.
That's likely to change in the playoffs but Autrey's got kids who know how to win, and some of those sophomores fill up a pretty tight infield that makes life a lot easier for the Tiger's young pitchers — see Connor Perkins at short, Oscar Castaneda, a Gold Glove at second, Dylan Anderton, an RBI machine (28 this season) at first, Josh Portillo, a young man for all seasons, behind the plate — and Autrey's son Easton at third.
Easton's not just a sophomore, he's one of the top sophomore prospects in the nation. Just ask Texas A&M's Aggies, who offered young Autrey a scholarship a year ago when he was a freshman.
He can do it all, field third base, pitch, run, hit for power and just plain flat-out hit the cover off the ball. He looks and plays like a coach's kid. His older brother Hunter is tearing it at Sam Houston State. They were swinging a bat before they were wearing long pants.
The two biggest bats in the Tiger order are right up front — a 1-2 Daily Double of Adrian Baston and Easton. Baston may be the best high school leadoff man in Texas. and has scored 42 runs
He's hitting .447 with an on-base-percentage of .552, a slugging percentage of .681 and an OPS of 1.233 — all are more than impressive for a leadoff hitter. He has 42 hits in 24 games and has scored 42 runs. He hit nine triples last season and starts the playoffs with five triples as a senior. Baston can hit and score but he does what most leadoff hitters don't do — he drives in runs (21 RBIs).
What he doesn't hit, Easton does, and even on days when he pitches, and he's a clutch arm for the Tigers with a 3-0 record and a 1.12 ERA that includes a save, Easton can do so much more.
He's got lightning in his bat — all four of his homers were memorable laser-type shots — and patience at the plate, where he's hitting .400 with a .583 on-base-percentage, and a .693 slugging and a 1.276 calling cards. He has scored 26 runs and driven in 31 in 39 games.
Then there's the wild card — the card no one was looking for when the season began.
That's Connor Perkins, a sophomore with a sky's the limit ceiling. Perkins is 9-1 on the mound with a team-best 0.67 ERA. He has allowed just six earned runs all year and has looked ridiculously comfortable on the mound. He's a smooth glove at shortstop with a talented bat — .390 average, .528 on-base-percentage while slugging .519 with an over the top OPS of 1.048. He's clutch, too, and has scored 28 runs while driving in 23.
The Tigers have depth on the mound with Brody Dobbs, who is 6-1 with a 0.88 ERA and veteran Isaiah Miranda. Baston and three-year starter Blake Phillps, who can handle a bat or any role on the diamond, are clutch in the outfield as well as Trenton Bruton, who has come on this season and gives the Tigers another dangerous bat.
This is the team that delivered Autrey's 400th win on Feb. 29 — and will be a part of Tiger Lore forever because of that leap-year victory. Since that win the Tigers have gone 21-2, including a 13-game winning streak. They pitch like Dodgers of the 1960s (Google Koufax and Drysdale). A dozen of their 24 wins this season have been shutouts, including their last five games.
They have done so much and come so far since that first day when they had to watch their step to keep from falling over all the question marks that littered Price Field.
But then again, they have a long way to go.
Playoffs begin Thursday.
