Cubs have a Will; Piedmont, WP find a way
- Updated: March 24, 2015
Reaves pitches complete game, Piedmont rallies, White Plains eases back into action
Alexandria’s Will Reaves delivers a pitch against the Randolph School. (Special photo)
By East Alabama Sports Today
GULF SHORES – Will Reaves threw a complete game and Dalton Cobb hit a two-run homer as fourth-ranked Alexandria won its second game in the Gulf Coast Classic, 8-1 over Randolph School Tuesday.
Reaves gave up seven singles, walked none and struck out nine. The run he allowed, in the first inning, was unearned.
“All three pitches were working, that always helps, and we had good fielding behind me,” the junior right-hander said. “We just played solid throughout the whole game and had a lot of run support.”
Cobb hit his homer in the second inning to give the Valley Cubs a 3-1 lead. He also had an RBI double in the fourth. Reaves, Chance Williams and Dalton Warren banged out two hits apiece.
The Cubs (18-2) stepped away from the tournament Tuesday night and beat Saraland 6-4 in a game with a crazy seventh-inning finish.
The Spartans were rallying from a 6-0 deficit, but Cubs coach Andy Shaw caught them batting out of order on a play that scored a run. The infraction took the run off the board and the offending hitter batted twice in the inning; he drove in a run again when he batted again.
“I’m not sure what the mix-up was, but I’ve never seen that,” Shaw told al.com
The Cubs return to the tournament today.
Piedmont 5, Brooks 4
Tyler Lusk singled home Bayley Blanchard with two outs in the seventh inning to cap a two-run rally that gave Piedmont the lead and Blanchard shut the door from the mound in the bottom of the inning.
It was the second game in a row the Bulldogs bounced back from a bit of adversity to win. On Monday, they gave up a four-run inning that tied the game, then came in and scored five runs in their next bats.
The Bulldogs held an early 2-0 lead Tuesday, but went into the seventh trailing 4-3. Blanchard’s bunt single loaded the bases and the Bulldogs tied it when Easton Kirk was hit by a pitch. Lusk delivered his go-ahead hit later in the inning.
“First of all, it gives us a lot of confidence,” Blanchard said. “It tells you we’re not a team that’s going to give up or quit because you make a few bad plays.
“That’s what Coach (James Blanchard) tells us when we come in. I think everybody made an error in that inning yesterday; we were out there for like 30 minutes. We just kept our head in the game; that’s what you’ve got to do.”
Once with the lead, Blanchard still had to get Brooks out in the bottom of the seventh, his third inning of relief. He did it with a lot of help from Derrick Baer, who bounced back from a rough start in the field to make two big defensive plays that kept Brooks from scoring.
Baer caught a line drive and nearly turned it into a double play and then backhanded a ball over the bag and threw out the runner for the game’s final out.
“He made some ESPN plays, but he booted some routine balls that got us in some bad situations,” James Blanchard said. “It was good to see him come back from some adversity the way he did. We’ve come back two days in a row from a little adversity and that’s what I’ve been waiting for.”
It’ll be a doubleheader tournament day for both teams Wednesday. Alexandria plays Brooks and Northview starting at 4:30 p.m., while Piedmont plays Sylvania and Valley View (Ark.) Gold starting at 9 a.m.
White Plains 11, Shipley (Pa.) School 3
KISSIMMEE, Fla. – It took the White Plains Wildcats a little while to get their game legs back, but once they got going, they had little trouble controlling the game.
The Wildcats hadn’t played since sweeping an area series from Saks last week and hadn’t done anything baseball-related over the weekend.
They did score four runs in the top of the first, but they gave up two unearned runs in the bottom of the inning as the first two Shipley batters reached on errors.
“We were a little rusty to start with,” Wildcats coach Chad Hudson said. “It took us about three innings to get settled.
“It’d been about seven days since we’ve played, we didn’t do anything over the weekend baseball-related, we spent 12 hours at the park, so a sluggish start was expected. This was a good team for us to play our first game.”
Once they settled in, the Wildcats put together four straight hits in the fourth on the way to scoring five runs.
Drew Hudson and Kevin Carr had three hits apiece, while Caleb Morrow and Jarrett Webb each had two. Hudson had two RBIs and scored three runs.
Landon Price gave up four hits and two unearned runs in five innings to get the win. Taylor Morrow finished it up and gave up one run and one hit. They finished just about the time the Braves and Phillies were starting their exhibition game in the stadium next door.
They plan to take in the Braves and Red Sox on Friday.
“Being in this environment, it’s really cool,” Hudson said.
It’ll be a busy day for the Wildcats on Wednesday. They play three games, a doubleheader against Grayslake North (Ill.) and an 8:30 p.m. single game against The Haverford (Pa.) School. The Wildcats are expected to start left-hander Carr, Caleb Morrow and Andrew Cronan in the games.
This story will be updated.
TUESDAY’S BASEBALL LINESCORES
Alexandria 8, Randolph 1
Randolph 100 000 0 – 1 7 0
Alexandria 120 212 x – 8 12 1
Ryan Hufford, Nick Webb (6) and Sam Kimel; WILL REAVES and Derrik Turner. 2B: Reaves (A), Cobb (A). HR: Dalton Cobb (A). WP: Reaves (2-1). LP: Hufford.
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