Sam soph has pull
- Updated: March 23, 2021
Robertson goes 4-for-4 in Oxford’s rout of Deshler, all four hits pulled down third-base line; Ohatchee rallies to walkoff against Clay Central
MONDAY’S BASEBALL SCORES
Faith Christian 5, Victory Christian 0
Choccolocco Park Spring Experience
Calera 10, Lincoln 1
Calera 7, Ohatchee 1
Deshler 5, Wellborn 1
Ohatchee 5, Clay Central 4
Oxford 16, Deshler 2
Ragland 12, White Plains 5
Vincent 13, Donoho 4
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD – After watching Sam Robertson go a crisp 4-for-4 in Oxford’s 16-2 rout of Deshler at Choccolocco Park Monday, one might be tempted to ask if the sophomore shortstop ever hits the ball to the right side of the field.
It can be accurately reported that he can – and has – gone the other way on occasion this season. It’s just that he hasn’t done it often and not at all on this day.
All four of his hits – three doubles and a single – landed within inches of each other near the third-base bag before skipping into the outfield.
You could almost put a towel over the divots they made in the infield dirt, they were that close to each other.
“I’m fastball sitting,” Robertson said. “Every time I see a fastball I’m always getting the barrel out on time. That’s where I feel like my power’s going to be. If I hit a ball, the damage is going to be to the left side, so I just take advantage of that.
“‘That is something I’ve got to work on because my opponents know that I like to pull the ball so they’ll try to throw outside pitches on me. I don’t usually work on the right side a lot. I can hit it over there, just not a lot.”
He reached out on a 3-2 pitch in his first at bat and poked it just past the third baseman and legged out a double. His next at bat he ripped one just inside the bag and into the left field corner. He had a single and another double in similar fashion.
His first two doubles came in an eight-run first inning in which the Jackets sent 13 batters to the plate. His first one drove home the game’s first run and after moving up on a passed ball scored the second run on Miguel Mitchell’s bunt back to the pitcher.
“He’s like a Wes Brooks-style hitter early in my career,” Oxford coach Wes Brooks said. “I hit 15 home runs my sophomore year at Jacksonville State, but I struck out 57 times, because I was always early. I played ping-pong with the third-base bleachers a lot because I was early.
“But I would rather have 100 guys on my team that are early and I coach them to slow down, than having to speed them up. He can do it. Right now, he’s just not doing damage to right field.”
Everybody in the Jackets’ lineup did damage against the Tigers. Eight of the nine spots in their lineup had at least one hit and every spot scored at least one run. Trey Higgins had a pair of triples in back-to-back at-bats and six RBIs, and Carter Johnson reached base all four times he batted.
“I felt like we really barreled a lot of balls up,” Robertson said. “We didn’t strike out a lot, we just put the ball in play and when you put the ball in play good things happen.”
Oxford 16, Deshler 2
Deshler 002 00 – 2 4 2
Oxford 843 1x – 16 12 1
WP: Nick Hamlin. LP: Reese Wilson. 2B: Sam Robertson (O) 3, Gavin Orcutt (O). 3B: Trey Higgins (O) 2.
Hot-hitting Howell caps Ohatchee rally
OXFORD – The Ohatchee Indians came from three runs down in the bottom of the seventh to get back in the game and they couldn’t have had a better option at the plate.
Clay Central passed on walking Devin Howell to load the bases with two outs and the Indians’ best hitter responded by ripping a single into center field to give the Tribe a 5-4 walkoff win.
“It feels good to be put in that situation,” Howell said. “I just try to keep myself under control, not to do too much, just try to put the ball in play, do what I can do, just try to score those runs.”
The Indians trailed 4-1 going into the seventh, but loaded the bases with Trey Pesnell’s leadoff bloop single and a pair of two-out walks to Jakob Buckelew and Carson Tittle. Konnor Baswell then hit a two-run double to right to make it 4-3 and chase Deshler starter Beck Freeman.
But now, with the tying and winning runs in scoring position, the Vols had a decision to make. Do they pitch to Howell or put him on to load the bases and face the equally dangerous Brent Honaker needing only a force at any base to end the game?
They let reliever Kam Strickland pitch to Howell and on the fourth pitch he saw the Indians’ centerfielder ripped a 2-1 fastball into center that brought home the decisive runs and touched off a wild celebration near first base.
“I knew the kids would keep fighting,” said Indians coach Blake Jennings, who picked up career win No. 97 in the game. “We kept telling them get to the next man, get to the next man; as long as we go to the next man we had a chance. And if we could get it to the top we’d have a chance.
“I told Konnor when they changed pitchers Devin is fixin’ to crush this get ready to score. I told Carson if I wouldn’t have known who Devin is I would walk him as much as he’d been hitting the ball, but he said, I don’t know, coach, pick you poison.”
Baswell and Howell both had two hits and two RBIs in the game for Ohatchee. Bryce Noah pitched a complete game for the win.
The second game wasn’t so fruitful for the Indians. Calera turned five errors into five unearned runs in the third inning and won 7-1. The floodgates opened on a two-out, bases-loaded fly to right. Konnor Baswell had three of Ohatchee’s eight hits.
Ohatchee 5, Clay Central 4
Clay Central 000 103 0 – 4 9 1
Ohatchee 000 001 4 – 5 7 3
WP: Bryce Noah. LP: Beck Freeman. 2B: Kam Strickland (C), Beck Freeman (C), Clay Yates (C), Konnor Baswell (O).
Faith Christian 5, Victory Christian 0: Brodie Dodson pitched a six-hit shutout with 13 strikeouts and had two hits at the plate as the Lions picked up an area victory. Faith took a 1-0 lead in the third on Colton Pahman’s RBI single, then broke it open with four in the fifth highlighted by Will Smith’s two-run single. Pahman, Dodson and Brady Whitworth all had two hits for the Lions.
Deshler 5, Wellborn 1: The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the second and Nick Whitten held the Panthers to three singles and struck out 13. Wellborn pulled to within 2-1 in the sixth on Brayden Dempsey’s two-out RBI single, but Deshler scored three insurance runs in the seventh.
Vincent 13, Donoho 4: The Falcons answered Vincent’s five-spot in the second inning, but couldn’t answer another one in the fifth. Blake Willingham’s two-run triple highlighted the Falcons’ four-run second that got them back to within 5-4, but the Yellow Jackets pushed across a run in the fourth and five in the fifth for which the Falcons had no answer.
Ragland 12, White Plains 5: The Purple Devils used a pair of three-run innings in the third and fifth to erase White Plains leads and then broke it open with six in the seventh. Drake Key and Josh Phillips both had three RBIs for Ragland, which banged out 16 hits. Duke Barnett went 3-for-4 for White Plains, while Jaden Chatman and Quin Wilson had two hits apiece.
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