Most baseball teams are just looking to survive and advance in the playoffs. The Clarkdale Bulldogs (23-5) have higher expectations for themselves at this time of the year, and their play through most of the season has justified those expectations.

Clarkdale dropped just one game in February and one in March before opening April with just one win in four games, but the Bulldogs were able to close the regular season out with three straight dominant wins. Capital Sports now has the Bulldogs ranked as the No. 3 team in 3A in the publication’s most recent rankings.

The Bulldogs swept Tylertown in a doubleheader at Clarkdale on Monday to advance to the second round, and they did so in dominant fashion with 10-0 and 13-5 wins. However, neither Clarkdale coach Scott Gibson nor his players seemed pleased with their performance on the field.

“In April and May it’s about getting a W, and that’s about all we got tonight,” Gibson said. “We didn’t play really good ball tonight, but we got the W, and that’s all that matters at this time of year. We’ve got a lot of getting better to do before next week. Very fortunate, I’m happy we’re moving on, but we’ve got to clean some things up.”

Clarkdale’s Cal Culpepper said the Bulldogs did not play their best, and Luke Williams echoed the statements of his teammate and coach after the second game.

“I don’t think we showed our full potential to be honest, but this time of the year a win is a win,” Williams said.

Williams has only started on the mound a few times since coming back from injury, but he gave up just one hit to the Chiefs through all six innings of game one while throwing seven strikeouts. Just 48 of his 84 pitches were strikes, though, and he walked six batters.

“He did good,” Culpepper said. “I thought he threw it well, he played well, but coach is right. The game starts with throwing strikes. It starts with pitching.”

Cade Culpepper threw four strikeouts while giving up just one hit in 2 ⅓ innings of game two, but the Chiefs capitalized on his six walks by scoring four runs before he was replaced on the mound by Cade Hopkins.

Hopkins gave up three hits and two walks in 1 ⅔ innings while throwing four strikeouts. Jax Joyner came in to close out the final three innings, and he allowed three hits while also throwing three strikeouts and a walk.

“We’ve got to throw some strikes,” Gibson said. “We didn’t throw a lot of strikes tonight. That’s really what we do best, but we didn’t do it tonight, so we’ve got to just get back to throwing strikes and giving ourselves a chance.”

The Bulldogs also failed to catch a couple of fly balls and struggled to prevent the Chiefs from stealing bases in game two, but they did well at the plate and running the bases in both games. Clarkdale finished game one with 11 hits and five walks.

The Bulldogs’ offense slowed down through the second half of game two, but they managed to turn five hits, seven walks and seven players hit by pitches into 13 runs.

“I thought maybe we kind of let off the gas a little bit to be honest with you, but kids are going to do that sometimes,” Gibson said. “We’ll learn from it, and we’ll be ready to go in round two.”

In the next round Clarkdale will look to advance past the winner of a first-round series between Raleigh and West Marion.

“I feel confident,” Williams said. “We have a very scrappy team, and we always want to win, so I feel like we’ll get it done.”