Final bound
- Updated: July 29, 2024
Choccolocco Monsters pitching does it again, and Tidwell’s go-ahead hit proved to be all they needed en route to a 4-1 victory over the Cartersville Cannons and a berth in the Sunbelt League title series.
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD — Ricky Ray Clayton makes his bones trying to win high school state championships. His Choccolocco Monsters players earn their scholarships trying to win college championships.
What meaning does a championship in summer wood-bat baseball hold?
“I asked them that question,” said Clayton, the Monsters’ head coach. “They said they want to win it. They want to win it, They told me over there before the game they want to win it.”
The Monsters earned the right to try Monday, beating eliminating the Cartersville Cannons in Game 3 of their Sunbelt League semifinal series a Choccolocco Park.
The top-seeded Monsters (20-9), the league’s only 20-game winner this season, will play host to the Atlanta Crackers in Game 1 of the league finals on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. Game 2 will be in Atlanta on Friday, and Game 3, if necessary, would play out at Choccolocco Park on Saturday.
The Monsters reached the finals in their return season to Oxford after playing 2023 in Columbus, Ga.
They’re doing it without four players who played most of the regular season. Either because of late-summer obligations with their colleges or injuries, leadoff hitter Rashad Robinson, No. 2 hitter Cole Tremain, Oxford High product Trey Higgins and league ERA leader Dawson Campbell have not played in the playoffs.
Alexandria High graduate Andrew Allen, a midseason addition and the Game 1 winner Cartersville, won’t be available for the championship series. The Arkansas State signee has college orientation in Jonesboro, Ark., Clayton said.
Clayton said he’s mulling his pitching move for Game 1 against Atlanta but leans toward Harris Burns, who came on in relief and steadied the Monsters when Allen struggled with a stomach virus in a regular-season start.
The Monsters lead the Sunbelt in team ERA and held Cartersville to three runs in three semifinal games, including a 2-1 loss in Game 2.
“I’m really proud of our pitching,” Clayton said. “They’ve done an awesome job. They’ve learned. They’ve listened, and I just like our mound presence with everybody.”
The Monsters still have semifinal Game 2 starter Howell Polk and Monday’s Game 3 winner, Will Baker.
Baker worked five innings Monday, allowing three hits and one earned run on William Fincher’s solo home run in the third inning to give the Cannons a 1-0 lead. Baker struck out seven batters.
Caleb Jatko worked 2 2/3 innings of scoreless middle relief, and closer Avery Brown kept the Cannons off of the board for the final 1 1/3 innings.
The Monsters committed two first-inning errors, but Baker stranded runners on second and third bases.
The Monsters lost four base runners, two on a seventh-inning rundown that became a double play. Hugh Windle was out at third base twice … caught stealing in the first inning and gunned down trying to take an extra base on Mason Walker’s fifth-inning single.
None of it mattered. The Monsters’ pitching was too good, and Eli Tidwell came up with the big hit … a two-run double in their three-run fourth.
“I got down early, and I just knew I had to put the ball in play,” Tidwell said. “We had two outs, so I just tried to make something happen there.”
Tidwell later scored on Andrew Wells’ grounder plus one of two Cartersville throwing errors.
The Monsters lead 3-1 and added an eighth-inning run. Hayes Harrison reached on a single and eventually scored Jake Goolsby’s grounder plus a throwing error.
It was more than the Monsters needed to get to the league-title series, now down five players.
“It just shows the depth we have,” Tidwell said. “EVerybopdy, just one man after another, just steps up.”
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