News

by Thomas Garverick

Athens, OH -- It all comes down to this.

The Southern Ohio Copperheads (22-17) hold their fate in the palm of their hand in the final two games of the season.

"We control our own destiny," manager Phil Butler said. "We do our job the next two games and win, we're in."

Butler is absolutely right. This message came during the aftermath of a stunning 4-3 loss Friday night to the Hamilton Joes (14-24).

It didn't help that the Cincinnati Steam (22-18), who entering Friday night trailed the Copperheads by 1.5 games for the second playoff spot in the Southern Divison, ended Friday night with a victory over the Xenia Scouts.

Southern Ohio's lead is now trimmed down to half a game as the Copperheads enter their final series of the season against the Richmond Jazz (25-15).

What may be a blessing in disguise, however, is that with the Copperhead loss, the Jazz clinched the Southern Division crown. The Jazz lost Friday night to the Lima Locos and look locked into the three seed.

The Jazz may choose to rest key players and save their best pitchers with the division wrapped up.

That rest could play in the Copperheads' favor as they send out Jesse James on the mound Saturday night. This will be James' first start of the season.

James has been phenomenal coming out of the bullpen, and that success earned him the chance to start in Saturday night's tilt with the Jazz. He'll look to continue to put zeroes on the scoreboard.

Every pitcher needs support, and hopefully, the Copperheads' offense rebounds after an off night in Hamilton.

For the Cheads, they need their stars to shine the brightest on the biggest stage.

That stage is set with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at Bob Wren Stadium. If you can't make it out to the game Saturday night, listen to Lukas Moore and Russ Heltman on Power 105.5 for all in-game updates. Also, check the Copperheads out on Twitter by following @Copperheads and on Snapchat and Instagram by following @Cheadsbaseball. 

Saturday night is fireworks night as well! Stick around after the game for a spectacular show in the sky!