Jackets clinch area
- Updated: April 15, 2016
After losing ninth-inning heartbreaker, Oxford wins second game of twinbill to clinch Class 6A Area 10 title
Oxford senior Trey Hopper delivers a pitch during the first game of Thursday’s doubleheader with Pell City. Hopper took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of a game Oxford lost in the ninth. Hopper had a game-tying two-run single in the nightcap. (Photo by B.J. Franklin/GungHo Photos)
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD – The undefeated run in its new home may have ended, but Oxford still won its area baseball championship Thursday night by doing the things ingrained in it from the beginning of the season.
The eighth-ranked Yellow Jacket split a doubleheader with rival Pell City at Choccolocco Park, losing the first game 3-0 in 9 innings and coming from behind to win the nightcap 5-4 to clinch the Class 6A Area 10 title.
They did it by handling at least two elements in the “V” of their MVP ideals – “Mission, Vision, Principles.” They refused to lose to the same team twice and they answered back with a big inning. All of that earned them a third element of the V — the area crown – and kept them on track for a fourth – fewer than 10 losses in the regular season (they’re 32-8).
“The record and the winning streak and all that means nothing if you don’t clinch area,” Oxford coach Wes Brooks said. “So, I just think that kind of put the icing on the cake of the season.”
The extra-inning setback in the opener was the Jackets’ first loss of the season in the Choccolocco Park, soon to be a finalist for best high school baseball field in the state by the national high school coaches association. Trey Hopper took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, but Pell City reached him for three runs in the ninth.
The Jackets fell behind 3-0 in the nightcap, too, but put together a series of two-out hits to score five runs in the fourth inning to take the lead for good. They held on by cutting down the potential tying run between third and home in the sixth inning on a play involving players they switched for defensive purposes.
“We’ve been doing it all year; we’ve won over 30 games,” Hopper said. “We’ve played enough here to know that no matter what it is at the end of the game we can finish, and that’s what we did tonight.”
The Jackets were in the playoffs regardless of the outcome of Thursday’s doubleheader, but they needed to win one game to clinch the area. They crushed the Panthers 19-1 Tuesday night.
Hopper gave them every chance in the opener, taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning in his pitching duel with Chase Robinson. The Panthers touched him for three in the ninth on an RBI single by Robinson, a sacrifice fly by Austin Allen and Austin Carleton’s RBI double.
Hopper also was involved in the Jackets’ five-run fourth in the nightcap that erased an early 3-0 deficit.
He ripped a two-run single to tie the game after Austin Bolander doubled home the first run of the inning. Jud Moore’s RBI single made it 4-3 and Caden Higgins scored the fifth run on a wild pitch on a play that got PC coach Andrew Tarver tossed.
“I think it helps because if we have guys who believe in you in the dugout, even with two outs, we’re able to do that,” Hopper said. “I was looking for anything hittable I could drive. Found a hole and it worked out.”
But the game was far from over. The Panthers threatened in the sixth, but the Jackets made several big defensive plays to limit the damage.
When Brooks brought Andy Hammond in to close, he also swapped first baseman Brennan McCullough and right fielder Jacob Sears and it might have been the move that saved the game.
With runners at first and third, Sears made a diving stop on Dylan Wiley’s hot grounder to save a run. Caleb Hurt then singled into right field scoring the lead runner, but McCullough made the throw to the plate that started the rundown that cut down Carleton trying to score the tying run.
“We knew we could go out there and win,” Hopper said. “We just had to come alive and do what we know how to do, play like we have all year.”
Oxford seniors Chance Adams and Dillen Miller are signing scholarships Friday in the Sports Arena. Adams, the center fielder who had a hit in the nightcap, will sign with Huntingdon. Miller, the second game starter and winner, will sign with Baton Rouge CC.
Game 1
Pell City 3, Oxford 0
Pell City 000 000 003 — 3 6 0
Oxford 000 000 000 — 0 5 2
WP: Chase Robinson. LP: Trey Hopper.
Game 2
Oxford 5, Pell City 4
Pell City 003 001 0 — 4 7 0
Oxford 000 500 x — 5 9 0
WP: Dillen Miller. LP: Bailey Horton. S: Andy Hammond.
Oxford first baseman Brennan McCullough (10) tries to keep Pell City’s Chase Robinson close in the ninth inning of Thursday’s opener. (Photo by B.J. Franklin/GungHo Photos)
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