Oxford wins County title
- Updated: March 8, 2016
Yellow Jackets win another even-year Calhoun County baseball title behind Hammond’s gem
Tournament MVP Andy Hammond (R) and his former major-league pitcher dad Chris after the awards ceremony for the Calhoun County Baseball Tournament.
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE — The crowd sitting behind home plate could tell it was going to be Andy Hammond’s night from the first pitch he threw in warmups.
The senior right-hander opened his first-inning warmup routine with a curveball that had the sweetest sweeping swing on it you ever saw. It surely would have buckled someone’s knees if they were in the batter’s box.
And it only got better.
Hammond, the son of a former major-major pitcher, gave up one hit Tuesday and faced the minimum number of batters in a 10-0 six-inning victory over Alexandria that gave Oxford another even-year Calhoun County baseball championship.
He was the overall MVP of the tournament.
Hammond threw 64 pitches, 47 for strikes and struck out seven. He went to two balls on only four hitters.
It was his second straight one-hitter, having done the same to Grissom in his last start; that hit was a bunt. The only hit he yielded Tuesday was a fourth-inning single by Will Reaves.
“When I was warming up I knew my pitches were on command and that it was going to be a good game,” Hammond said. “The coaches always say just have confidence, throw the pitches you are commanding that day and just go out there and have fun.
“After the first three innings I knew something was going to be good. I didn’t know I could be able to throw that good, but I knew whatever I threw, if they hit it, there was going to be some good play in the outfield.”
Oxford coach Wes Brooks gives his veteran pitchers the option of calling their own game and said Hammond called about 90 percent of his own pitches. The one pitch Brooks said he called produced Alexandria’s only hit.
Reaves was erased on a fielder’s choice and the next batter hit into an inning-ending double play.
“He was great,” Alexandria coach Andy Shaw said. “He was getting all his pitches across for strikes. He was very comfortable out there and after they got that five-spot he got real comfortable. We couldn’t do anything with him and he just kept getting confidence as the game went on.”
Brooks said Hammond was so smooth in his approach he didn’t think the pitcher could’ve gone out there with an X-box controller and made it any better than he did.
Hammond has been particularly sharp since getting out of an early-inning bases-loaded one-out jam unscathed in his first start against Pelham.
“Throughout the year the No. 1 changes, but he’s kind of stuck his neck out and as of right now he’s throwing just as good as anybody we have,” Brooks said. “He never gave them a chance.”
The Yellow Jackets (8-3) supported their pitcher with eight runs in the first two innings. Everybody in the lineup had at least one hit. Jacob Sears and Trey Hopper both had two-run singles in the five-run first and Sears ended the game with an RBI single with two outs in the sixth.
“Coming into the dugout our goal was let’s run-rule them,” Hammond said. “Let’s just go in there and see how many runs we can put up, so it throws it on their hands to score more.”
And as well as Hammond was pitching, that wasn’t going to happen.
The two finalists put nine players on the 17-player all-tournament team. The other top award winners were Alexandria’s Taylor Shaddix (defensive MVP) and Oxford’s Austin Bolander (offensive MVP).
Shaddix followed Cubs starter Reaves with 3 1/3 shutout innings and had nine-plus shutout innings in the tournament. Bolander, the Yellow Jackets’ leadoff man, went 5-for-8 in three games with eight runs scored and two RBIs.
The Yellow Jackets have won six of the last nine county tournament titles, taking the crown in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016. Alexandria beat them in last year’s title game.
Oxford’s Austin Bolander (8) slides back into first base ahead of the tag of Alexandria’s Cody Dodd. Bolander scored three runs in the championship game and was named Offensive MVP of the tournament.
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Oxford 10, Alexandria 0
Alexandria 000 000 — 0 1 2
Oxford 530 002 — 10 13 0
WP: Andy Hammond. LP: Will Reaves.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Caden McCurdy, Pleasant Valley; Jacob Shears, Wellborn; Cody Ortiz, Weaver; Colin Casey, Jacksonville; Bayley Blanchard, Piedmont; Easton Kirk, Piedmont; Tristan Woodall, Ohatchee; Blayde Crump, Ohatchee; Cody Dodd, Alexandria; Taylor Shaddix, Alexandria; Griffin Carroll, Alexandria; Zack Stephens, Alexandria; Dillen Miller, Oxford; Chance Adams, Oxford; Trey Hopper, Oxford; Austin Bolander, Oxford; Andy Hammond, Oxford.
Offensive MVP: Austin Bolander, Oxford
Defensive MVP: Taylor Shaddix, Alexandria
Most Valuable Player: Andy Hammond, Oxford
Alexandria’s Taylor Shaddix was named Defensive MVP of the tournament after throwing nine-plus shutout innings in two appearances. (All photos by B.J. Franklin)
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