‘Good win. Good job’
- Updated: April 11, 2023
Gendron’s father, recovering from a stroke in Florida, keeps texts coming as son’s Donoho team rallies from 10-run deficit to beat Pleasant Valley
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
It’s one thing to get text messages from dad while coaching a baseball game. Steve Gendron’s dad had a stroke within the last week, so those texts felt like blessings for the Donoho coach Tuesday.
“Good win. Good job. Call me later,” the elder Steve Gendron texted from a rehab facility in Tampa, Fla.
Peyton Webb’s second home run of the game, a two-run shot to left-center field, broke a tie game and completed the Falcons’ comeback from a 10-run deficit to beat Pleasant Valley 12-10 in Class 2A, Area 13 play on Donoho’s McWhorter-Brock Field.
The game had no area stakes. Donoho, 17-1 and ranked No. 3 in 2A in the Alabama Sports Writers Association poll, clinched its area title last week. Pleasant Valley (13-10) is eliminated from playoff contention.
The game still carried personal stakes and back stories.
Pleasant Valley came into it on a seven-game winning streak since a March 23 coaching change. This week’s series with Donoho, which continues with Wednesday’s doubleheader at Pleasant Valley, is Pleasant Valley’s playoff.
“We’re treating it that way,” Raiders interim head coach Dalton Turner said. “Our seniors, they’ve worked their tails off. They’ve been through a lot, and so … we wanted to get them out here and compete.
“There was never any doubt about our guys that we could beat this team, or complete with this team, and that was evident in the first inning.”
For Gendron, a former Mississippi State player who has coached Donoho to deep runs in the past three AHSAA playoffs, things just feel different after his father’s stroke.
Gendron said his dad is “functioning, somewhat cognitive” but has bases to round on his way to recovery. Gendron said he felt “a lot more calm” Tuesday.
“I didn’t really panic or stress out when we were down by 10,” he said. “A lot of that has to do with, there are things that are way more important in my life right now, and I’m aware of that now. I probably wasn’t a week ago.”
The elder Steve coached his son from T-ball to seventh grade. He threw batting practice to his son at Mississippi State and in pro ball, and he’s thrown batting practice to his son’s Donoho teams “many times,” Gendron said.
“If you ever want to get locked back in as a player, have your old man show up and throw some BP,” Gendron said. “He’s a baseball guy. It’s in his blood. It’s in my blood.”
Blood boiled hotter than water as Pleasant Valley erupted for 10 runs in the top of Tuesday’s first inning. Connor George had a two-run single and an RBI single, Samuel Duncan a RBI single and Holt Bentley a three-run triple.
Gendon’s father followed the game on the GameChanger app, and texts flowed from Tampa.
“He had some choice words early in the game,” his son said, preferring to paraphrase. “”Why are you not throwing strikes? What happened in the first inning?”
The tone changed after Lucas Elliott goosed Donoho’s comeback with a three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning.
“He texted me, ‘OK, you’re going to come back,'” Gendron said.
Come back Donoho did, chipping away until Webb tied the game with a three-run home run to right field in the fifth inning, extending his Donoho single-season and career records with his first opposite-field shot.
Webb made it 12 home runs this season and 18 for his career with the walk-off shot.
So ended an inning that also saw Falcons first baseman Sam Montgomery field a Bentley grounder, step on the bag then turn and fire for the force out at second base. Out of the dugout after the play, Gendron turned toward the backstop with a satisfied smile.
He kept his frown upside down in his postgame talk with his team.
“We strive to play good for ‘Skip’ every game,” Webb said. “It feels nice having a good coach talk after the game.
“He said it said a lot about us, and how we fight back and compete, how we can do whatever it takes to score. We don’t give up. He said it says a lot about us, and I think it does.”
As for the elder Steve Gendron’s comeback, his son has his own form of GameChanger to follow along. It’s called a cell phone.
“I’m going to call him tonight, whenever I get out of here … ,” Gendron said. “That was a win. It’s definitely a difficult time right now, but we had something to focus on, pay attention to and have fun with tonight.
“I’m sure I’ll hear about it, when I call him.”
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