Pleasant Grove Begins Baseball Playoffs at Home
The Pleasant Grove Hawks are set to begin their 2017 baseball playoff journey with a Friday night home game.
The Hawks will take on Van in the first round of the playoffs. The best of three series begins at 6PM Friday evening at Hawk Field. Games two and if necessary three will be played Saturday in Van, starting at 2PM.
It's been another very successful season thus far for the baseball program at PG. The Hawks finished the regular season with a 25-3 record and won the district title with a 9-1 mark.
Head Baseball Coach Riley Fincher is proud of his team, saying "Our team has done a great job of doing things right, not only on the field, but off the field and in the classroom as well." Fincher says particularly during district play the team played very well.
The Hawks are not resting on their success, the coach says every day in practice they are looking for ways to improve in all phases of the game. Fincher says to be successful in the playoffs the team needs to continue to get good pitching and timely hitting. Also important to the mix is a sound defense and some aggressive base running.
Speaking of pitching, it has been another year of good hurlers on the mound. Led by Caleb Bolden and Tyler Jeans, the PG staff has been stingy about giving up runs. Fincher credits the work the staff put in as far as the off-season program, weight room, and early season practice, that has payed huge dividends for the team this season.
On the offensive side, timely hitting has been the key and coach says, "Up and down the lineup, we have guys that are capable of driving the baseball in the gap, but are also willing to lay down a bunt and move a guy over in order to help the team succeed." He calls the teams hitters very unselfish.
As we mentioned earlier, the Hawks begin with a series against Van. Coach Fincher says they have been in the playoffs the last few years so they will have players with that experience. He describes them as being very well coached and is expecting a great series between two good baseball programs.
Fincher is excited about starting the playoffs at the home field, "We are very fortunate to have outstanding fans at Pleasant Grove. Our guys love playing at home."
Good luck to the Hawks as they continue their hopeful march to another state tournament in Austin in June.