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TOPIC: 2010 State Tourney Recap (Senior) |
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| Lee Walker
August 2, 2010
10:30:33 PM
Entry #: 3541868
| Even though we didn't win the state tournament, it was a great experience to make it to Troy once again. For the 1st time in the 3 years that the Senior Legion state tournament has been reduced to 4 teams, I feel the best 4 teams actually made it to Troy this year.
Going into the tournament, most folks affiliated with American Legion baseball around the state agreed. Everyone I talked to (various coaches and commissioners) thought any one of the four teams had the potential to win the tournament. This is the first year that thought has been shared by the majority.
I was aware that the odds of our winning took a serious nosedive when our prolific leadoff hitter showed up at practice and to take our team picture wearing a cast on his right arm. There aren't many teams that have the ability to replace a .534 hitter at the top of their lineup as they're heading into the sub-state tournament.
After being unavailable to play in the sub-state, it was great to learn that Jake was going to be able to go to Troy with us.
After going thru practice Thursday night with the other 9 players who went on down Thursday (without Jake participating), I really didn't think the odds were very good Jake would be able to do anything other than be a pinch runner one team each game.
However, when we showed up for pre-game batting practice a lil over an hour before game time, Jake decided to get in the cage to get some swings in. Amazingly, he was able to control the bat and was swinging exceptionally well, considering the fact he had a cast on his arm.
The decision was made to insert him into our lineup as the DH. He led off the top of the 1st inning with a smash, one hopper (tough in-between-short-hop) right at Decatur's shortstop. Their SS made the play, but that AB set the tone that the Post 11 offense would have to be dealt with before the day was over. We proceeded to hit 2 more balls hard that inning, again, right at their defenders.
We made the decision to start Adam Polk on the mound. Adam has been a big game pitcher for us the past 2 years. He was doing a great job of locating his pitches, however, the Decatur hitters were doing a great job of going with the pitch and guiding the ball through the infield. He was able to limit the damage to 1 run in the 1st inning even though Decatur collected 4 hits in the inning.
After we had fallen behind 4-0 in the bottom of the 4th inning with Decatur runners on 2nd & 3rd with 2 outs and their #4 hitter (best hitter) at the plate, the decision was made to not give him anything to hit. If he wanted to chase a bad pitch and get himself out, let him do it (we were basically issuing an 'unintentional intentional walk'). Well, on the 2-0 pitch, Adam's pitch was about 12" outside. Mathis almost flung his bat at the ball, and he made contact with the end of his bat and was able to dump the ball into left field. If you take that, along with the scorched ball that Jake hit to lead off the game, you will get the understanding that the baseball gods were lined up on Decatur's side that afternoon.
Ryan Forester was sent to the mound to try to keep the game within reach to see if our offense could get anything going. Ryan settled the Post 15 offense just long enough for us to finally put a lil fear into the Post 15 faithful.
We went to the 6th inning trailing 6-0. Ryan had thrown 19 pitches and the decision was made that if we didn't put some runs on the board in the 6th that we would pull Ryan so he would be strong on Saturday. Well, we put a short rally together as we put 4 runs on the board.
Those 4 runs meant that Ryan was sent back to the mound. Decatur was able to answer our rally with 2 runs of their own to take an 8-4 lead into the 7th inning. Again, the decision was made that if we didn't put more runs on the board we would pull Ryan so we could have him available on Saturday (even though we knew we wouldn't have him as strong on Saturday as he would've been had he only thrown the 19 pitches).
Well, forget the notion of pulling Ryan from this game, because our offense put another 4 spot on the board to tie the game at 8-8. Decatur scored 1 run in the bottom of the 7th to take a 9-8 lead into the 8th. We went quietly in the 8th.
However, the 9th proved to be good to us as Jake led off with a hit. Jake then stole 2B, and advanced to 3rd on the throw to 1st from the SS on Blake Logan's grounder. Decatur made a risky move next, as they chose to intentionally walk C.K. Irby. This put the go-ahead run on base (which is a 'NO-NO' in most baseball coaching strategy books). They were hoping to get Justin to hit into a double play. However, after a couple of pitches and a good breaking ball count, we stole C.K. to take the DP option away. Justin proceeded to hit a deep fly to CF which scored Jake with the tying run. We weren't able to get the big 2 out hit to score the go ahead run, so we went to the bottom of the 9th tied 9-9.
The bottom of the 9th was not intended to be watched by folks with weak hearts. After striking the 1st batter out, the next 2 batters reached base (via a walk and an IF hit), and were able to reach 2B & 3B via an errant throw. So, we intentionally walked their #2 hitter in the order to load the bases with 1 out. This forced us to have to pitch to Hunter Kelley, who had absolutely worn us out when we played them during the season. Ryan coaxed him into hitting a grounder to Justin at 3B, who made an accurate throw home to get the force out. We weren't out of the jam yet though, as Chase Mathis strolled to the plate with the bases still loaded, but now with 2 outs. Ryan proceeded to strike him out, which sent the game to extra innings.
Both halves of the 10th inning were uneventful. However, we had a great chance to take the lead in the 11th. Ethan Baggett led off with a hit (his 3rd of the game) and was able to advance to 3B on C.K.'s hit up the middle with 2 outs. However, we weren't able to deliver the clutch 2 out hit again as we left the runners stranded.
The 12th inning wasn't a good one for the group wearing the Florence Post 11 red jerseys. We allowed the Post 15 defense to barely get their feet warm on the 140 degree turf, as their pitcher retired our side on 3 pitches.
In the bottom of the 12th, Decatur was in the meat of their lineup. Their #2 place batter led off with a single and their #3 hitter sacrificed him to 2B. We chose to intentionally walk Mathis again. The next batter hit a fly ball to fairly deep CF (back a few steps). Their runner on 2B (who has good speed) tagged up on the play. We made a good catch and throw to our relay man. Our relay throw was right on the money. However, it was so good that it hit their runner in the helmet and ricocheted into their dugout and out of play.
It was not the ending anyone involved in the game wanted to see. The game was soooooooo hard fought. It was one of those classic games where neither team should've lost. It was an epic battle, and will be remembered by anyone who was at Troy for a long long time to come.
Even after such a devastating loss, lo-n-behold the sun did come up again the next morning. We were matched up against Dothan Post 12 at 10:00 a.m.
After a scoreless first inning, Nick Flanagan led off the top of the 2nd inning for us with a drive off the wall in RF. Their RF played the carom perfectly and held Nick to a single (which was probably the pivotal play of the game). Their pitcher attempted to pick Nick off at 1B. Nick slipped on the turf as he tried to get back and fell down. With his arms on the ground as he lied on his belly, the throw from the pitcher was off target. The throw was toward in the infield, and the tree that Dothan had playing 1B (6'6" .. 250 lbs) came off the base to catch the ball. When he landed, he didn't land on the turf, he landed on Nick's arm. The spikes did quite a nasty number on Nick's arm (to the tune of 28 stitches to close the wound - which was lower than the original estimate the hospital had projected it would take).
After a several minutes delay, once Nick had been tended to as much as was possible and was secured in his parents car and was on the way to the hospital, the game resumed. Jud Sherrill then hit a drive over the RF's head. Again, he played the carom perfectly and held Jud to a single. Within 2 pitches to our next batter, their pitcher again made a pickoff attempt, which was successful again in picking our runner off (2 balk moves, 0 balks called).
It was almost as if you could feel the air gushing out of our balloon. We went ahead to get another hit and a BB in the top of the 2nd, but again couldn't deliver the big 2 out hit to drive in the runs.
Dothan came in and promptly scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 2nd. We went ahead to collect a total of 10 hits during the game. However, we were only able to muster 2 runs across the plate.
We eventually lost 13-2 in 7 innings to bring an end to what has been a very good season.
We had 16 players make the trip to Troy with us. The 16 that were there gave everything they had to win the tournament.
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| Ken Irby
August 3, 2010
7:38:51 AM
Entry #: 3541990
| This summer was an exception opportunity to play with players we had heard about but never played with. Ryan, Ethan, Blake L, Blake H., Jud, Jake, Collin, Brantley thanks we had a great time playing with you. Those players we have played with on Post 11 or on other teams in the past including Caleb, Adam, Joe, Nick, Justin, Dakota, Hunter we had a great time with you again as always. Lee, thank you for the fine job you do keeping summer baseball in perspective. It's never about Lee but always about the team! Jack, Sherry, Glenn and I thank all of you for a great summer! The Irby's
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