Matt Hamilton/Daily Citizen-NewsHayden Lock leads Coahulla Creek High School in most offensive categories. He's hitting .417 with five home runs and 35 RBIs for the state-semifinalist Colts. 

VARNELL, Ga. — Baseball is a numbers game.

Much attention gets paid to different numbers surrounding the game. Batting averages, ERAs, pitch counts, stat totals.

For the state-semifinalist Coahulla Creek High School baseball team, two numbers take precedent over others, those in which adorn the back of the T-shirts players practice in: 86,400 and 1.

“The 86,400. That’s how many seconds are in a day,” senior second baseman Ethan Whaley said. “That’s how many seconds we have to become better baseball players, better people in general. P.O.1 is ‘Power of One.’ Just the power of one person can be the difference between winning or losing.”

Coach Michael Bolen said the “Power of One” has been a theme for this season and what one person can accomplish.

“It’s something to drive home the ‘Power of One,’ as far as one person, one pitch, one play, one individual, one at-bat all makes a difference,” Bolen said. “Just the power of that one, how can it spark different things to happen?”

The team has taken to heart the fact that any of them can make the difference in a game.

“We can hit all the way between No. 1 and No. 9,” Whaley said. “There’s no telling when or who’s going to come up with a big hit in a clutch situation.”

The 86,400 was actually a slogan for the 2016 version of the Colts, but the message still rings true.

“You get these 86,400 seconds in a day as when they’re gone, they’re gone,” Bolen said. “You can’t put it in a bank. You got to make the most of it and when it’s gone, it’s gone.”

“Every day you can get better, every second you can get better,” sophomore first baseman Drew Sage said. “Whether it’s in the weight room or out at practice, just do whatever you can do to get better and do it every day.”

The Colts (26-9) have used their seconds to progressively get better and better, to the point where the team plays today at Pierce County in a Class 3A state semifinal series. The Bears enter 26-7 and champions of Region 2-3A.

Game 1 today is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. If a Game 3 is necessary, it will be Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

This year’s Colts have already made school history becoming the first team in any sport to make it to the state semifinals. But no one’s ready to rest on that accomplishment.

“We’re kind of new to this but we don’t feel like stopping anytime soon,” senior Bryson Whitmore said.

Whitmore is part of a senior group that has been crucial to the team’s success.

“In any high school sport, you’ll have good seasons and you’ll have bad seasons, that’s just how it goes,” he said. “We have a big senior class that’s been carrying us this season, but that’s helped us the majority of the way, having an impact and a lot of experience and just good ball players.”

But for the team to get where it is, Bolen said it took those talented seniors to become leaders.

“The leadership that’s stepped up,” he said. “We’ve had certain guys we waited on to step up into leadership roles. We knew that whenever they did, it would make a huge impact on the team. We waited that course and whenever they were ready to do so, they’ve done it.

“Hearing things from a coach over and over, it kind of goes in one ear and out the other just because they hear so much from an adult. Once another player steps in, it changes the meaning.”

The leadership has helped the team grow together.

“At the beginning of the year, we always knew we had the potential but we didn’t work well as a team like we needed to,” Sage said. “We’ve grown together as the year’s went on.”

“We’ve always had the talent but we didn’t work together as a team,” sophomore Eli Turso added. “As the season progressed we grew more as a team and as a family.”

Sage pointed to an early season game against Calhoun as when things began coming together. The Colts beat the Yellow Jackets 1-0 on March 28 behind a late home run from Hayden Lock and a shutout on the mound from Trent Collins. At that time, Coahulla Creek was 10-7. It’s gone 16-2 since.

“That first win against Calhoun, I think that set everything off and set everybody up for victories,” Sage said. “That showed people what Coahulla Creek baseball really is.”

Calhoun is also a semifinalist, giving Region 6-3A half of the final four. The Yellow Jackets play a series against North Hall on the other side of the bracket.

But before a potential All-Region 6-3A final, the Colts face another unfamiliar foe, Whaley said the key to advancing to the state finals for the team to play its own brand of baseball.

“Just go out there and play baseball,” he said. “That’s what the coaches have told us to do and that’s what we’ve been doing. We’ve been having good outcomes doing it.”

Maybe that’s what the coaches told the players, but behind the scenes, there’s a lot of digging to find out how to put the team in the best position to succeed.

“The coaches are buried in scouting reports,” Bolen said. “The players don’t really see that but we give them the information they need to help them be sucessful and they go out and try to execute that. But the coaches are buried deep in scouring reports, trying to find any edge we can possibly find.”