Monsters champs!
- Updated: August 2, 2024
Another strong pitching performance, big hits propel the Choccolocco Monsters to an 8-1 victory over the Atlanta Crackers, Sunbelt League title.
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
ATLANTA — It all came together for the Choccolocco Monsters in the Sunbelt League’s decisive game Friday.
Four pitchers spread out seven Atlanta Crackers hits, and home runs from Jake Goolsby and Fisher Moss punctuate the night at the plate as the Monsters won 8-1 in Game 2 of the Sunbelt championship series.
The Monsters (22-9), who won Game 1 5-4 on Wednesday, complete the series sweep and clinched the league title in their return season to Oxford after playing 2023 in Columbus, Ga.
The Monsters returned after the Atlanta Braves moved their Double-A minor-league team from its longstanding Mississippi home to Columbus, leaving the Monsters without a home field. The announced their move back to Oxford in late spring and hired Top Gun Athletic owner Roby Brooks as general manager.
“For the city of Oxford, it’s a big deal,” Brooks said. “We’re Sunbelt League champs. Can’t no one take it away from us. It was a heck of a ride.”
Brooks mined his contacts with, with the help of Coach Ricky Ray Clayton, assistant Sam Maynard and players who reached out to other players, threw together a league-winning roster.
Partly because of the late forming of the roster, leadoff hitter Rashad Robinson and No. 2 hitter Cole Tremain had to leave late in the regular season because of obligations with their college teams. The Sunbelt is a summer wood-bat league for college players.
Hayes Harrison left for a planned family trip after Game 1 of the finals.
Pitcher Dawson Campbell, the league’s ERA leader, shut down during the playoffs, and Andrew Allen, who joined the team at midseason, had to leave for orientation at Arkansas State after winning Game 1 of the semifinal series.
Outfielder Trey Higgins missed postseason with a wrist injury.
The Monsters carried on without their entire starting outfield, two of their best pitchers and a first baseman/right fielder/pitcher utility man.
They emerged as league champs.
“When they were last here, it left a bad taste in everybody’s mouth,” Brooks said. “They reached out to us, and it means the world to me. It means the world to Ricky and Sam and the kids.
“The kids have been unbelievable. Our roster is so different than it was Game 1, and the guys just never quit.”
Starter Howell Polk and the relief trio of Thomas Ballard, Caleb Jatko and Carson Tyree held the Crackers to seven hits Friday. Polk worked the first five scoreless innings, allowing three hits with eight strikeouts. Ballard had a team-high six strikeouts in three innings.
Jatko struck out one of the two batters he retired in the ninth.
Tyree, a White Plains graduate who pitched for Jacksonville State, came on for the final out, inducing a Breydon Divine grounder. Tyree hit 96 mph on the game’s final pitch, Brooks said.
Goolsby’s two-run home run put the Monsters up 7-1 in the seventh inning, and he finished with three RBis. Moss’ solo shot in the eighth provided the final margin, and he finished with two RBIs.
Series MVP Taylor Harris went 2-for-4 with a double, two runs and an RBI, and shortstop Hugh Windle, who took over the leadoff spot in the order, went 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI.
“Tonight was the Hugh Windle show,” Brooks said. “Hugh Windle got three hits. Hugh Windle made diving plays at short all night long and just dominated the baseball game.”
As for the future, it appears the leadership battery of Brooks, Clayton and Maynard will return in 2025. This after a postgame conversation with Monsters president Jeff Croop.
“Me and the owner and Ricky talked about 10 minutes after the game out there,” Brooks said. “We’re all planning to come back.
“I’m sure there’s stuff that we’ve all got to work out, but right now, in my mind, I’m coming back. Ricky is one of my best friends, and he’s coming back. Sam’s coming back. Jeff asked us to come back tonight, so from my point of view, I want to do this for a long, long time. I’m really enjoying this side of it.”
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