LEXINGTON – Illuminated by a scoreboard rapidly filling with zeros beyond the outfield fence over his shoulder, Zack Godley dropped his head Friday.

He wasn’t down on himself. He was on the mound and the zeros belonged to Chesterfield. But the Bamberg-Ehrhardt junior was compelled to look down.

He’d stare right into the webbing of his glove and think of head coach David Horton. He’d think of how much he owed Chesterfield for ending his dreams of a championship in football. Then, he would quickly move on from Horton and the thoughts of the past football season and he would start reading the reminders scribbled inside his mitt.

Just Good Coaching

David Horton said he doesn’t know the exact number of years he has been at Bamberg, but he knows it’s been a while – over 40 years. As the playoff games have piled up, the coach has learned a thing or two about how the game should be played.

Godley lost the first game of the state championship series to Chesterfield, and the coach knew he needed to give him something before he sent him to the mound in Friday’s winner-take-all contest. Before the Red Raiders’ bus left Bamberg, he slipped Godley a formerly plain white sheet of paper that was filled with red-ink scribblings. It listed the pitcher’s mental game responsibilities. Godley took the sheet and read it … over and over and over again as his team made its way up I-26 to the game. Before the first inning, Horton took Godley’s glove and scribbled inside it also. There were three steps scribed into the webbing. They were the headings to the three steps outlined on the piece of paper.

Step 1: Have A Plan

Get yourself under control. Are you nervous? Are you tight? Or, are you confident, composed, relaxed? If you’re not in control of yourself, you’ve got to make adjustments to get where you want to be. Be able to recognize when you’re out of control. – David Horton’s written words to Zack Godley.

Godley said Step I was taken care of before he took the mound. He owed Chesterfield, and he was confident.

“I knew I just had to stay confident,” he said. “Don’t think about the game and just know that you can beat them. I knew they couldn’t beat me tonight.”

“I had a bad game the first game,” he continued. “I just had a lot of jitters, but I wasn’t going to let Chesterfield beat me in baseball and football.”

Step II: Have a Plan

For each pitch once you’re in control of yourself, clarify exactly what you want to accomplish on the next pitch. Decide where you want to throw it. Commit to your plan. – David Horton’s written words to Zack Godley.

Godley’s plan was simple. Beat Chesterfield. Shut Chesterfield down.

He didn’t know that he would hold them to two hits. “But I knew I wasn’t going to let them get any runs. I knew that I wasn’t going to let them dominate over me like they did in the first game.”

Step III: Trust Yourself

Let yourself perform. You’re under control. Let yourself do it. Play with confidence. You are not trusting yourself when you try too hard, aiming the ball, muscling up or pressing. One pitch at a time. You’ve go to focus and make a commitment to improving and playing the game. There is no substitute for hard, physical work. You have to put the hay in the barn to find out how good you can be. — David Horton’s written words to Zack Godley.

With the first two steps complete, Godley took the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning and let his talent “put the hay in the barn.”

He finished allowing just two hits, striking out eight and retiring the final 11 batters he faced. He even hit a home run. It was, according to Horton, possibly the most dominating performance one of his pitchers has ever had, rebounding from a game one loss in the state championship series to win game three.

“I don’t think (anyone has dominated like that),” the coach said. “Not as dominating as he was tonight.”

And in the end, it was the letter, the reminders in the glove and Godley’s mindfulness of his coach’s advice that might have meant all the difference in bringing a title home to Bamberg.

“(I looked at it) every time before I threw a pitch,” Godley said. “Everyone … pretty much. That (kept me going) and the fact that I did not want them to beat me again.”

-- T&D Sports Editor Brian Linder can be reached via e-mail at blinder@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5553. Check out his blog, Welcome to Linderland, at www.TheTandD.com.

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