It was an epic series with ECI in the Sweet 16 of the 1A Public state playoffs. Unfortunately, the Commerce Tigers, who had won game won 2-0 on the back of senior Charlie Ledford, dropped game two 7-4 and then the decisive game three on Tuesday afternoon.

It wasn’t just any loss, but an 8-7, extra-inning loss on the road, thus ending the historic 20-win season. The Tigers (20-13) had been red hot going into the series, which was delayed about a week due to a legal injunction with the GHSA about playoff seeding in class 1A. Commerce had not lost in over a month from April 6 until the second game against ECI, taking eight straight wins into that game.

“The series in general was hard fought on both sides,” says coach Steve Cotrell. “We can always look back at opportunities here and there where the outcome is different — but that’s why baseball is so different from a lot of other sports — it’s so detailed.”

Cotrell raved on the success of Ledford and what he means to the team, as well as junior Jacob Welch, who had a multi-homer game in the finale, that showed how far he’s come over the course of this season.

“They didn’t want it to end,” adds Cotrell, who says it’s hard to not look at the ‘what-ifs’. “It’s like I told them, I was proud of them even though the scoreboard didn’t reflect what we wanted to. At the end of the day, I felt that we outplayed [ECI], we just didn’t come out on the right side of things.”

While Cotrell was there for his seniors and the rest of the team, he admitted that it’s not an easy task when as a coach, you’re also dealing with the same hurt.

“I’ve been doing this for 18 years, and I’ll be honest, it’s never easy,” states Cotrell. “It’s always difficult to do that. This team just seemed to gel — I guess that’s what makes it a hard pill to swallow.”

Nevertheless, the Tigers have a great nucleus and veteran coach ready to tackle next season already. Commerce returns pitcher Nate Ray, rising senior Welch and rising junior Colby Rogers among many other key playmakers. The five-year playoff streak isn’t likely to end anytime soon for the Commerce Tigers baseball program.