Some birthday presents are better than others. The one Trojan baseball coach Scott Douglas received on Saturday definitely ranks high on the list of “Good Gifts”. For the first time since the 2000 season the Trojan baseball team claimed the Region IX tournament title with a pair of wins over third seeded Otero in La Junta. Playing through high winds, tornado warnings, hail and rain the fourth seeded Trinidad State baseball squad overcame the conditions and the Rattlers by scores of 4-2 and 10-3.
Game one saw Austin Davis claim the win on the mound for the Trojans. Kyle Orgill was credited with a hold and Chris Wilson picked up his second save of the post season.
On Saturday, the Trojan's Sean Woolard kept the Rattlers in check as the Trojans put up 10 runs though seven innings. TSJC cruised through the eighth and ninth for the victory.
Coach Douglas was also awarded the 2008 Coach of the Year award for the Region.
“I am proud to be the coach of this group of young men,” praised Coach Douglas. “I feel very fortunate and privileged to experience this with them. On the drive home I reflected over the past eight seasons and all the people I’ve been involved with in trying to attain this goal. Especially the 8 to 10 guys who chose to stay my first year. I wish I could thank each one of them in person. It took a lot of quality people to get us here. Lots of players fought just as hard for me over the years and fell short of this goal. Today we attained it, on the same day I turned 40 at that.”
“It has been pretty challenging on and off the field the past three seasons. We had lots of things to overcome, but today made all those challenges worth it. Last season being only one win away from a championship and watching it get away from us was a tough one to swallow. That experience proved valuable to getting it done this year, all on the road.”
“Our conference was pretty solid this year and other teams could be where we were today, including Otero. We beat a good team with an excellent young coach.”
The Trojans will now head to the District round of the playoffs to be played in Coolidge, Arizona this Thursday and Friday. They will play two games on Thursday, the first against the College of Southern Nevada (44-14) and the second against Central Arizona College (40-20). Depending on who wins the Thursday games determines who plays on Friday. From that a district champion will be crowned and will head to the World Series in Grand Junction.
“We have some other goals to go after now and they are going to be tough,” commented Douglas. “We need to keep trying to play better each step, it will take all we've got to get to the next step of this journey but we feel we are up to that challenge. We’ll need to pitch well, like we have been, and do all the routine ordinary things well on defense.”
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