WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — It was rough sledding for the Alcovy Tigers in their first playoff appearance in nearly a decade. When all was said and done, Alcovy was swept out of the first round of the state playoffs by No. 1 seed Houston County. 

The Tigers lost game one 15-0 and game two 14-0. 

Nevertheless, head coach Jimmy Hughes highlighted how qualifying for the postseason was an accomplishment all on its own. 

“I didn’t care what the scores were,” Hughes said. “It was good to see them get there. I love them, the staff loves them and I’m sure they love each other throughout this season, too.” 

It was a team effort from all grade levels to help the Tigers earn a postseason berth for first time since 2013, too. 

Luke Rosser led the Tigers at the plate with a .327 batting average and led the team with six stolen bases, too. Reece Payne had a team-high .438 on-base percentage. 

Hunter Parker led all Alcovy pitchers with a 1.98 ERA in 42.1 innings of work. Payne registered the most strikeouts with 68 total in 2022. 

Defensively, CJ Salmon had the highest fielding percentage with .969. Salmon also finished tied for the top spot in total RBIs with 19. Connor Coursey batted 19 runners in as well and drilled one of the team’s three home runs this season. 

All in all, the season was deemed a success by the Tigers’ head coach. And, despite the season not ending the way the Tigers wanted to, Hughes was excited about the experience his team gained. 

“The playoffs are special,” he said. “It’s not just a routine, regular season game. And we treated it as such. You can’t take playoff experience away at this point. For [the players] to see a state championship caliber team, I think it opened our guys’ eyes to what the next steps need to be to compete at a higher level.”