Trojans don’t make winning easy Saturday
Published 6:33 pm Saturday, April 20, 2013
Meadowview Christian shortstop Wes Tipton makes the tag as a Sumter Academy runner attempts to steal second base by diving for the bag. Tipton, who played shortstop in game one of Saturday’s double header, was the winning pitcher of the second game. Meadowview won both games to advance to the next round of the playoffs. — Tim Reeves
At the end of Saturday’s first game between Meadowview Christian and Sumter Academy at Bloch Park, Meadowview assistant baseball coach Lebo Jones went up to his team and said, “Dear God, you’re going to give me a heart attack.”
That was easily the shared sentiment of most of the Trojan faithful after Meadowview was able to hold on to an 8-7 win in game one of Saturday’s opening round of the Class 1A playoffs doubleheader.
But, that wasn’t the end of it.
Game two between the two teams nearly played out exactly the same, as Meadowview was able to bash their way to a strong 4-run lead heading into the final inning. All they had to do was get three outs and they would have swept Sumter Academy and advanced to the next round of the playoffs.
As it played out, Sumter would get runner after runner on base and would chip away at the lead. With two outs, Sumter found themselves down by only one run and had the bases loaded.
To load the bases, Trojan head coach Scott Gunter decided to intentionally walk one of Sumter’s strongest hitters. This gave his defense the chance to make an out at any base.
In response to a questioning call from the crowd, Gunter yelled back, “win or lose, this is my decision. I’ll take the heat if it doesn’t work.” Senior pitcher Wes Tipton, didn’t let his coach face any heat as he was able to strike out the final Eagle batter, setting off a sigh of relief in the crowd and a celebration on the field.
Meadowview, with the 11-10 win, has earned a trip to round two of the playoffs and a meeting next week with top-seeded Lakeside Academy.
“Our guys just kept finding ways to win the games today,” Gunter said after the second game. “We have a young team, but they played hard and they swung the bats really well today. I’m tremendously proud of what they were able to do.”
Joel Taylor earned the win in the first game, pitching all seven innings as well as going 3-for-4 from the plate with three RBIs. Tipton, in game one was 2-for-4 and added four RBIs. Seth Taylor added another two hits for the Trojans and one RBI.
In game two, Tipton pitched the entire game to earn the win and went 2-for-3 from the plate and three RBIs. Taylor again went 3-for-4 in game two and added two RBIs. In game two, Austin Tubbs was 4-for-5 to lead all hitters, and chipped in with two RBIs.
