Sports

DWS eager for revenge on Tattnall

• The one-loss Deerfield baseball team will make its first appearance in the state title since 2005 against the only opponent that beat the Knights all season: Tattnall Square.

Derek Barichello

ALBANY — A lot has changed in two years.

Just ask Deerfield-Windsor’s Steven Mann. He knows more than anybody.

After all, the last time the Knights made it to the state championship in 2005, they traveled to Tattnall Square — the same opponent they will host Friday at 4 p.m. and Saturday at noon in the Class AAA state title game — and Mann was the Game 1 starter.

“It was interesting,” said Mann of the eventual loss to Tattnall. “All I remember was thinking to myself was that most of these kids are going to college on scholarship and I’m only 14 years old. And that we made a lot of mistakes.”

In that championship series, the Knights made errors behind Mann — who has only pitched two innings this year due to a shoulder injury — and lost the opener 11-1. And in Game 2, they let a lead slip away in the sixth inning and fell, 6-5.

Though Mann, one of four seniors who experienced the championship series in 2005 as a freshman, is the most extreme example, he is not the only one who sees the rematch shaping up differently this around.

“We are a much better team,” said Knights catcher Culin Brown, who was the only other active Knights player to see game action in the series. “Everybody on this team can play. There are no individuals on this team, just baseball players, not athletes, which was what I thought that team was. There are no holes now, we have total confidence in everyone.”

Not only do the Knights believe they are better equipped but the roles are reversed. This weekend, the Trojans — who handed the Knights (24-1) their only loss of the season back on March 29 — travel to Albany, rather than the Knights going up to Macon.

“We’ve never played a huge game like this here,” senior first baseman Patrick Golden said. “We’re excited we get to do it all here and we’re going to use it our advantage.”

But that’s not all which will be different this time around.

For starters, the Game 1 pitcher will be ace Justin Lott, who threw a no-hitter against George Walton in the second round, and the Game 2 starter will be Kevin McCrary — both 3-0 in the playoffs and both unseen by the Trojans.

Secondly, it was that loss that has sent the Knights into championship mode ever since.

“That game showed us how hard we had to work to get back here,” Lott said. “We had to work every day because when we saw those guys weren’t hitting in the games, they were in the batting cage working to get better.”

Most importantly, though, even in an 11-1 defeat the Knights learned the Trojans are beatable.

“We know we can play with them,” Mann said. “We can’t be intimidated by them if we want to come out on top. It’ll be on the back of our minds but we know anybody can be beat.”

STATE OR BUST?

After every home game, win or lose, the Knights sprint through the outfield grass to smack the green metallic batter’s eye in center field, while “We Are the Champions” by Queen plays on the field’s speakers.

And ... why?

“We set a high standard here,” Brown said. “We’ve been doing that after every game for awhile now, ever since I’ve been here. It means if we don’t win state, we’re a failure.”

NO HEROES NEEDED

DWS coach Rod Murray doesn't think the Knights need to change much to the 11-1 fate they suffered against Tattnall Square on March 29.

"Neither team needs to come with an 'S' on their chest,” Murray said. "For us to win, we just have to keep playing the same way. We have to hit the baseball in all counts, play good defense and throw strikes."

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