CRESTVIEW — Crestview High School’s baseball team will try to reverse its fortunes Thursday, when the Bulldogs travel to Tallahassee to face Chiles in the Region 1-7A quarterfinals.
Crestview fell to Chiles 3-2 a year ago in a game delayed several days by rain. Thursday’s forecast is much more favorable, as weather in the capital city should be in the mid-70s and partly cloudy.
Of course, the weather is one of the last things Bulldog Coach Tim Gillis is thinking about as his team prepares to face a tough Timberwolves team that is 16-10 on the year.
“I know they are a quality program,” he said. “They’ve been in the playoffs many times. They got beat in the final four last year after they beat us in the regional quarterfinals at Chiles.
“It’s going to be a tough task for us. Coach Dick Steed has been there for quite a while and does a nice job. They’ve got a great program.”
It has been an up and down season for the Bulldogs. They take a 13-13 record into Thursday’s game. Crestview earned the trip to the playoffs with a thrilling 12-11 come-from-behind win over Tate in the District 1-7A semifinals before losing to Navarre 10-0 in the championship game.
“We are going to have our work cut out for us, but we are fortunate to be in the game and we are going to be ready to play,” Gillis said. “It boils down to individual at bats, pitch-by-pitch sequence and fighting and scrapping through an at bat.
“We talked about that all year, and that’s what it is going to boil down to that night. We had one game (Tate) where we were really good swinging the bats, so I thought we might be turning the corner a little bit. But we kind of took a back step against Navarre.”
Gillis said the familiarity of having played at Chiles last year might help a little, as Crestview’s players have experienced the school's field conditions and atmosphere.
The bottom line will have nothing to do with the field, though.
“It helps a little bit because we kind of know where we are going,” Gillis said, “but really truly not as much as who they are going to have on the mound and who they have hitting. You’ve got to go execute.”
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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview opens playoffs at Chiles on Thursday (VIDEO)