COVINGTON, Ga. — The Alcovy Tigers had a tough go at it Tuesday night as they fell to the Grovetown Warriors in four innings by a score of 17-1 in Region 3-AAAAAA play.

While the Tigers are not mathematically eliminated from a spot in the playoffs, they do have a tough road ahead of them. They need to win the majority of their remaining region games in order to secure the all-important fourth-place spot in their region — not the easiest task, considering the region is jam-packed with state-ranked teams (No. 2 Heritage and No. 5 Greenbrier) and rosters loaded with Division I talent.

But, having the long term goals in mind led to some of the decisions in Tuesday night’s game.

“It’s one of those tough situations in region play, too, where you can’t just throw all your pitching in one game because you know you have two games coming up Thursday,” said Hughes, referring to Alcovy’s trip to Grovetown for a Thursday doubleheader. “The message is that we’re not out of anything yet.” 

This bigger-picture mentality was not the initial approach that Hughes had walking into the ballpark. He had a game plan that, in the early stages of the game, was effective, but the Warriors found a way to adjust and quickly make the score out of hand.

“I honestly felt, though, some of the softer stuff we threw out there at them, they wouldn’t be able to sit back on and for a couple batters, we were right,” said Hughes. “After that, they did a good job of getting their timing back.” 

In such a lopsided score, the Tigers still had a few bright spots that Hughes was pleased to see. Sophomore shortstop Ryan Spikes was among those bright spots as his solo home run to right center accounted for the Tigers’ only run.

That hit late by Spikes, his sixth of the season, and the way other players stepped up and continued to put in maximum effort in a tough game were among those bright spots.

“It was encouraging to see Ryan hit the ball out there even down like we were,” Hughes said. “Good approach and kept battling. So it wasn’t like we weren’t fighting. It just wasn’t working. It was good to get the freshman Connor Coursey some work in for his first ever appearance too.”

With the big picture in mind, the Alcovy (8-13, 1-9) will look to avenge this loss Thursday at Grovetown. 

The Tigers were originally scheduled to take on a non-region opponent Thursday in Luella, but the doubleheader against Grovetown was moved up to Thursday in response to Friday’s forecasted 80 percent chance of rain. The Luella game has been postponed indefinitely.