Staying alive
- Updated: April 13, 2021
Cherokee County stages another seventh-inning rally to force showdown with Jacksonville; Piedmont wins ninth straight area title, Donoho walks off with Ragland and more
TUESDAY’S SCORES
Cherokee County 11, Jacksonville 8
Donoho 5, Ragland 4
Oxford 9, Southside 2
Piedmont 13, Glencoe 5
Pleasant Valley 13, Ohatchee 2
St. Clair County 10, Alexandria 2
White Plains 6, Munford 2
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville was hoping to clinch its first area championship in six years in its final home game of the season Tuesday, but after two late-inning rallies snatched victory away, the Golden Eagles will have to make it happen on the road later in the week.
Cherokee County took advantage of Jacksonville’s loose play in the field to score four runs in the seventh inning to stun the Golden Eagles 11-8 and set up a winner-take-all area title game in Centre Thursday.
Both teams are in the Class 4A playoffs, but Thursday’s winner will be the Area 9 champion and host Area 11 runner-up Good Hope in the first round of the playoffs, while the loser will be area runner-up and start the playoffs at Curry.
“We’re going to win Thursday; that’s what we’re about to try to do. We’re about to try to go win Thursday,” Jacksonville coach Jamison Edwards said. “It’s still in front of us. We wanted to get it here and I thought for a good part of the game we put ourselves in a position to where we were going to do that, but we couldn’t finish.
“We didn’t make the plays. We didn’t make plays and they did. We didn’t execute and they did. There’s not much more to it than that. Fortunately, we have another opportunity, so we’re just going to ty to win it on Thursday.”
The Golden Eagles (12-13) will send Nick Salmon to the mound. Cherokee County (14-12) will counter with Daegan Scott. Regardless of the game’s outcome, the teams will not play a Game 3.
Jacksonville had it going on early. The Golden Eagles led 7-3 after five innings scoring all seven of the runs with two outs.
Cherokee County tied the game with four runs in the sixth, capped by pitcher Connor Wilson’s game-tying two-run single. Jacksonville retook the lead 8-7 in the bottom of the inning when Taj Morris raced home on a wild pitch, then the Warriors scored four in the seventh when the Golden Eagles simply collapsed in the field.
The Warriors put runners at first and second with one out. Malachi Horton dropped a bunt that Salmon fielded in front of the plate. The Jacksonville pitcher initially looked at the force at third, then turned and fired to first, but his throw sailed into the right field corner.
The two lead runners scored to put the Warriors ahead. Horton almost came all the way around, but was held at third. Jackson Aultman then missed a bunt on strike three, but the ball got away and he took off for the unoccupied first base leaving the Golden Eagles in a pickle.
If Jacksonville catcher Tito Canales threw down to first the speedy Horton would have easily raced home with another run. Canales held the ball as long as he could to delay Horton’s advance, then threw wildly to first allowing Aultman to reach and Horton to score. Eli Martin ran for Aultman and later scored on a grounder to second.
“Those kinds of mistakes we have fought all year,” Edwards said. “The games we have been able to keep it under control are the games that we’ve won and we’ve won some games against good teams because we were able to keep the errors down and the walks down and the strikeouts. In the games we’ve lost if you, if you look at it ,those are the things that show up.”
It was the fifth time this season the Warriors won a game trailed in the fifth inning or later and won in their last bats (Glencoe, Ohatchee, Coosa Christian, White Plains, Jacksonville). Three times, including Tuesday, the deficit those victories was at least three runs.
Wilson called the rally “a fun finish with a great group of guys.”
“The seventh inning was wild,” Warriors coach Will Smith said. “If you know anything keeping up with Cherokee County baseball you know that’s what we do. If I went back in our schedule the amount of time we’ve rallied and come from behind and won ballgames late, probably the majority of our wins are that way.
“We’re a very young team and we give some runs away on defense occasionally, like we saw tonight, but these guys, being down doesn’t faze them. Any team that I’ve had in the past probably gets beat in this situation. This team has fight all the way up until the end. I may go bald and gray, but this team right here is the most fun I’ve had as a coach since I’ve been at Cherokee County.”
Cherokee County 11, Jacksonville 8
Cherokee County 210 004 4 – 11 7 1
Jacksonville 410 111 0 – 8 11 3
WP: Connor Wilson. LP: Nick Salmon. 2B: Coleman Oliver (J), Grant Patterson (J), Tito Canales (J).
Donoho 5, Ragland 4: Connor Goodson doubled home Lucas Elliott with none out in the bottom of the eighth to give the Falcons the walk-off win. It was Goodson’s second double of the game.
Ragland tied the game on Josh Phillips’ solo homer in the seventh inning. Elliott hit a game-tying two-run homer for Donoho in the fourth.
The win alive keeps Faith Christian’s hopes for a first playoff berth since 2012. If Donoho wins Thursday, the Lions are in. If Ragland wins, the Purple Devils will claim the area’s second playoff berth.
Donoho 5, Ragland 4
Ragland 200 010 10 – 4 10 2
Donoho 000 211 01 – 5 8 0
WP: Blake Willingham. LP: Owen Schall. 2B: Owen Schall (R), Jabari Thomas (R), Connor Goodson 2 (D). HR: Josh Phillips (R), Lucas Elliott (D).
Piedmont 13, Glencoe 5: Noah Reedy went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, Jadon Calhoun and McClane Mohon each drove in three runs and Calhoun struck out eight in six innings on the mound as the Bulldogs clinched their ninth straight area championship.
Calhoun hit a two-run double in the first and drew a bases-loaded walk in the sixth. Mohon had a two-run single in the third and an RBI double in the fifth. Reedy had a two-run single in the sixth, the fourth straight time he reached base in the game.
Piedmont 13, Glencoe 5
Glencoe 001 004 0 – 5 7 3
Piedmont 304 033 x – 13 13 1
WP: Jadon Calhoun. LP: Nolan Farley. 2B: Jaydon Patton (G), Sean Smith (P), Max Hanson 2 (P), Jadon Calhoun (P), McClane Mohon (P).
Pleasant Valley 13, Ohatchee 2: The Raiders parlayed three doubles, three walks and a hit batsmen into seven first-inning runs and Pelham Parris pitched a five-inning one-hitter with seven strikeouts.
Parris, Caleb Shew and Dalton McElroy had the first-inning doubles. Zeke Curvin homered in the fourth. Parris lost his no-hitter with two outs in the fifth.
“I was proud of the way (Parris) competed on the mound tonight,” PV coach Chris Youngman said. “He did a good job hitting spots. We tell our guys to put it past them or get a ball we can field and he certainly did that tonight.”
Oxford 9, Southside 2: Trey Higgins hit a leadoff home run and R.J. Brooks delivered a two-run single later in the first to get the Yellow Jackets off and running.
Brooks finished with two hits and three RBIs. Hayes Harrison went 3-for-3 and Trey Mooney was 2-for-2. Gavin Orcutt homered leading off the fourth. Mooney started on the mound and struck out 10 in five innings.
Oxford 9, Southside 2
Southside 001 010 0 – 2 6 1
Oxford 300 114 x – 9 11 0
WP: Trey Mooney. LP: Thomas Little. 2B: Aulden Battles (S), Thomas Little (S). HR: Trey Higgins (O), Gavin Orcutt (O).
White Plains 6, Munford 2: Quin Wilson and Landon Senciboy each drove in a pair of runs and Tyler Daniel pitched a complete game as the Wildcats shut down the playoff-bound Lions.
St. Clair County 10, Alexandria 2: The Saints erupted for nine runs in the first inning and Luke Fondren pitched a complete-game five-hitter, forcing the Valley Cubs to win the first game Thursday to win the Class 5A Area 11 title.
The Valley Cubs scored a run in the top of the first on an error, then the Saints came in and sent 13 batters to the plate. Nine of their first 10 batters reached safely with Garrett Whitehead and Jackson Lindsey hitting back-to-back RBI doubles.
St. Clair County 10, Alexandria 2
Alexandria 100 010 0 – 2 5 4
St. Clair Co. 901 000 x – 10 9 1
WP: Luke Fondren. LP: Allen. 2B: Sawyer Motes (S), Garrett Whitehead (S), Jackson Lindsey (S). 3B: Jackson Bryant (S)
You must be logged in to post a comment Login