‘This place means a lot.’ Tates Creek shrugs off setbacks in homecoming season for coach.

It took a spectacular play from Paul Laurence Dunbar left fielder Harrison Simpson to prevent Tates Creek from coming all the way back from a 7-0 deficit Wednesday night at Cole-Poynter Field.

Simpson’s frozen rope throw head-high to his catcher cut down Tates Creek’s potential tying run on a bang-bang play at the plate that ended the contest in a 7-6 home loss for the Commodores.

But first-year Coach Jeff Chapuran liked the fight his No. 14 Tates Creek team showed after falling behind 7-0 in the fourth inning. They scored two runs each in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings to get back into the game and had the potential winning run on first base with one out in the seventh until No. 7 Dunbar slammed the door.

“That’s what we’ve preached to them all year: just keep fighting and keep chipping,” Chapuran said. “It’s taken until now to really instill that.”

Homecoming for Chapuran

Chapuran, a 2013 Tates Creek graduate, got a call last May about potentially taking over the head coaching job at his alma mater.

Larry Poynter, who led the Commodores to the 2019 state championship and a 125-74 record over six seasons, has gradually assumed the school’s athletic director position over the past year.

Chapuran was an assistant on Poynter’s 2019 staff after finishing his own playing career at Spalding University. After that state title season, Chapuran became a college assistant at Northern Oklahoma College-Enid and later Louisiana State University-Shreveport, which made back-to-back NAIA World Series appearances while he was there.

Chapuran admits taking on his first head coaching job has been a challenge.

“It’s been good. It’s a lot to think about and worry about, but what makes it easier is No. 1, the assistants that I’ve got,” Chapuran said. “They’ve been here for a while and they know what’s going on and they support me and they take care of things that I don’t even know about sometimes.

“And the players too. You know, we have a really good group of seniors.”

Chapuran is only the fourth head baseball coach in Tates Creek history. The Commodores won three state titles (1978, ‘80, ‘86) under the late Ron Cole. Chapuran played for the first of Dom Fucci’s two region title winners (2013, ‘14).

“This is home. This place means a lot to a lot of people, especially me,” Chapuran said. “There’s a pride that comes with putting TC on your chest. We don’t take that for granted any day of the week.”

Trying to put it all together

On Tuesday, Tates Creek overcame a 2-0 fourth-inning deficit at Dunbar to win 4-2 and split the regular season series against their 43rd District rival.

“I feel like we’re getting good,” said Tuesday starter Andrew Gilliam. “We’re getting in good at-bats and putting together a complete game — hitting, defense and pitching. We’ve come a long way.”

Gilliam, a senior right-hander who lost his junior season to a wrist injury that required three surgeries, has been Tates Creek’s most reliable starter in his comeback with a 4-1 record and a 3.63 ERA. He had four walks and a hit batsmen in five and one-third innings Tuesday but got the victory with a save from junior reliever Carson van Haaren.

“It was kind of hard coming back,” Gilliam said of his recovery. “I’m having a little bit of command issues but I was able to get back. … I feel good now.”

Tates Creek (13-5) answered Dunbar’s two-run fourth inning against Gilliam with three runs in the top of the next inning to take the lead.

“I knew they could do it. We’ve hit off good arms all year,” Gilliam said.

The players know that playing seven complete innings has been a struggle at times this season. Of their five losses, three have been decided by one run. In their 5-3 loss to Lexington Christian they fell behind early. In their 6-5 loss to Lafayette, they ceded the lead late.

“We’ve been struggling a bit through the season and just not being able to play a complete game,” said sophomore shortstop Chase Moore, who delivered a two-run single with two out Tuesday that put Tates Creek up 3-2 in that win.

You have to have heart to lose heart-breakers like Wednesday, though. Tates Creek has that.

“They’re starting to really believe in each other and they believe that no matter what the score is, they can win,” Chapuran said.

The series splits with Dunbar, LCA and Lafayette leave Tates Creek and Dunbar with matching district records of 3-3. Creek has two games against No. 3 Lexington Catholic left to play on May 2-3. At the same time, Dunbar will be taking on last-place Lafayette (1-5). LCA has completed district play with a 4-4 record.

District tournament seeding for everyone is on the line next week.