FRIDAY PREPS: MA baseball sweeps St. James in key area doubleheader; Lowndes beats Morgan
Andrew Hosein gave MA the lead in the seventh with a two-run single in the first win on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Montgomery Academy baseball coach Stephen Vosel has praised the resiliency of his players all season, but on Friday he saw it on several levels.
His pitchers were resilient, rebounding time after time to answer the challenge. His hitters were resilient, battling through obstacles to keep their team in the game. Most importantly, the Eagles were resilient in bouncing back from a series-opening loss to St. James on Thursday by sweeping a doubleheader from the Trojans on Friday, winning 6-3 and 7-6.
“We knew coming in our backs were against the wall, dropping the first game yesterday,” Vosel said. “At any level, it’s difficult in a three-game series when you drop Game One to come back and win the next two, especially when it’s a doubleheader. We’ve felt good about our pitching this year, mainly our depth, and Ware (McCollum) did a great job (on Thursday) and put us in a situation where we could’ve won but we didn’t make the plays and execute when we needed to.”
On Friday, the main character was Oscar Fiore, pitching a three hitter over six innings to win his duel with St. James junior Tabor Offord in the Friday opener.
“He’s been a guy, since he’s been in this program, that when he’s on the mound you don’t know if he’s absolutely dominant or if he’s absolutely struggling,” Vosel said. “He’s going to have the same demeanor all the time. I love his mindset. He came out with that killer instinct today and pitched his tail off.”
St. James coach Keith Lucky praised Fiore’s performance in the Friday opener.
“He did a heck of a job,” Lucky said. “He got up there and pounded the strike zone and we flew out a lot. We hit the ball in the air a lot and just couldn’t find the holes. The kid pitched a great game.”
Rick McBride went 1 for 2, scored twice and singled in Camp Shanahan in the third inning with the game’s first run. Parker Cook singled in McBride to break a 1-1 tie in a three-run fifth and Luke Jones added a two-run single in the sixth for a 6-1 lead.
Clint Houser went 2 for 4 and scored twice to lead St. James, while Wils Johnson added a two-run double off of reliever Will Hardin in the seventh.
Hardin then took the mound for the second game and pitched 5.2 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits.
“I can’t say enough about Will Hardin,” Vosel said. “People don’t understand how difficult it is in a doubleheader to pitch in that last inning, then come back and start the next game and pitch well enough to keep us in it.”
St. James turned the tables on the Eagles in the second game with a four-run third, stringing together four of the seven hits they would manage off of Hardin with an RBI double by Houser and an RBI single by Offord for a 4-1 lead.
That seemed to be enough for Emmett Rasmussen until the sixth until he struggled to find the plate, walking two batters in the sixth and three straight in the seventh, the final one a walk to John Allen Jones that trimmed the Trojan lead to 5-4.
“Emmett pitched one heck of a game,” Lucky said. “He pounded the strike zone early and then it got late. That’s as far as he’s ever gone. He reached 100 pitches and you could tell he just gave out of gas. He pitched a heck of a ballgame up until then.”
Andrew Hosein greeted reliever Dalton Nickles with a two-run single up the middle to give the Eagles a 6-5 lead and Luke Jones followed with an RBI single to lead for a two-run lead.
“In the top of the seventh, we’re down and have to find a way to tie it up and take the lead and Andrew Hosein comes up and hits a base hit up the middle and scores two,” Vosel said. “That is not the first time he’s had a clutch hit for us. He just goes up and gets the job done.”
But Luke Jones, on in relief of Hardin, hit the first batter in the seventh and walked the second one, causing Vosel to turn to shortstop Reid McBride, an eighth grader.
“We’ve got a kid on this team that’s an eighth grader who starts at shortstop and we put him in a humongous situation at the end where we needed three outs,” Vosel said. “He never got rattled, went straight at them, trusted his stuff, trusted his teammates and found a way to win.”
McBride walked Nickles to load the bases, gave up a sacrifice fly to Dawson Knowles to make it 7-6, struck out Mason Hooks for the second out and then watched a throwing error at first base turn into a play at the plate for the final out to set off a wild celebration by the Eagles.
“I can’t say enough about the resiliency of this group,” Vosel said. “We have been down in several games and they have fought back and fought back. Sometimes, it’s gone our way -- like it did today -- and sometimes it hasn’t, but they’re not going to quit until that final pitch.”
Lucky agreed.
“Take your hat off to MA,” he said. “They were able to put the ball where we weren’t, popped the ball out there where we weren’t and took advantage of some base runners on base with a key hit at the key time. And take your hat off to their defense. We hit some hard balls out there and they were able to run them down in the outfield. It was just one of those games where the ball didn’t bounce our way.”
After the first weekend of area play, Prattville Christian leads Area 6 at 2-0, followed by Montgomery Academy (1-1) and St. James (1-1) and Alabama Christian (0-2). Should the Eagles and the Trojans finished tied with each other for first or second place, Montgomery Academy will hold the tiebreaker after winning the third game of the series.
Montgomery Academy (9-8) will play Reeltown on Monday before getting back into area play next Thursday and Friday with Prattville Christian. St. James (13-6) will play Trinity on Monday before getting back into area play next Thursday and Friday with Alabama Christian.
BASEBALL
Lowndes Academy 5, Morgan Academy 3
LOWNDESBORO -- Ashton Yelder pitched a one hitter over four innings and the Rebels grabbed a 5-0 lead, then held off the Senators down the stretch on Friday at Lowndes Academy.
Yelder pitched four innings, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out seven. Cooper Dansby pitched the final three innings, allowing three runs on four hits while walking two.
At the plate, Yelder went 1 for 2 and scored twice, Dominic Dougan went 2 for 3 with a double and drove in a pair of runs and Bradyn Stokes went 1 for 3 and drove in a run.
Morgan Academy managed just five hits, with Speedie Pernell going 2 for 3 and scoring a run, Caden Tellier going 1 for 3 with a double and scoring a run and Cade Henderson going 1 for 3 with a double, scoring a run and driving in two.
Rhett Thomas took the loss, allowing two runs on three hits over the first three innings. Trevor White pitched 1.2 innings and allowed three runs while surrendering one hit and three walks, Tellier pitched the final 1.1 innings of no-hit ball.
SOFTBALL
Prattville Christian 17-15, Wilcox Central 0-0
PRATTVILLE -- Two pitchers combined on a perfect game in the first game and three combined on a one hitter in the second as the Panthers swept a pair of area games from Wilcox Central on Friday.
In the first game, Laura Beth NeSmith and Holley Beth Rollan combined for a perfect game with eight strikeouts in a game halted after three innings by the mercy rule.
Chloe Hollon went 2 for 2, including a three-run home run, and drove in four runs, while Kandice Crosby was 2 for 2 with three RBIs and Peyton Thrash was 2 for 2 with one RBI.
In the second game, Kandice Crosby, Colbie Martin and Addy Messick combined for a one hitter in a 15-0 win. Korbyn Stubblefield and Holley Rollan had a pair of RBIs, Kandice Crosby had a triple and Chloe Hollon and Erin Williams had doubles.
PCA (9-3) will travel to Plantersville for an area game with Dallas County on Thursday.
GIRLS SOCCER
St. James 7, Alabama Christian 0
Hope McCain scored a pair of goals, Katie Brightwell added four goals and Natalie Barton scored the Trojans’ final goal in a 7-0 win over Alabama Christian on Thursday night.
Brightwell’s four goals gave her 211 in her career, tying her with Briarwood Christian’s Catherine Reddick (1997-2000) for fourth place all time in Alabama High School Athletic Association history.
Mary Grace Hixon led the way with three assists along with Sana Shuford, Hailey Vance and Gracie Russell each contributing one assist.
Katie Irving recorded her 4th shutout of the season in the goal.
The game was the area opener in the two-team Class 1A-3A Area 3.
St. James (6-0-1) remains home to play Stanhope Elmore on Monday.
Montgomery Academy 11, Russell County 0
Montgomery Academy celebrated Senior Night at McLemore Field with an easy 11-0 win over Russell County to improve to 3-0 in 6A Area 4 competition.
Sophia Cho scored four goals and Lauren Jones added three to take care of Russell County. Other goals were scored by Lilly Hines, Mary Elizabeth Cole, Kirsten Thomas, and Ella Harding.
Montgomery Academy (7-1-1) closes out area play with a game against Pike Road on Tuesday.