Senators come from behind twice Thursday to stun Bessemer Academy, reach AISA baseball semifinals
Published 10:59 pm Thursday, April 27, 2017
Twice on Thursday night the Morgan Academy baseball team found itself backed against the wall and running out of chances for a rally. Maybe the Senators like it that way.
Morgan rallied twice on Thursday — from seven down in game one and two down in game two — to stun Bessemer Academy in the quarterfinal round of the Alabama Independent School Association baseball playoffs. Morgan won game one 14-7 and game two 5-4 in eight innings and will move on to play in the AISA semifinals next week.
“These guys have come together as a team and as a family and they have been playing great lately, no matter if we are down 50 or up 50, they are still playing hard, still playing to the very end,” said Morgan coach Josh Thacker. “It’s a big family atmosphere.”
In game one, Brayton Brown hit two home runs and Sam Plummer hit a home run as the Senators scored 12 runs in the final two innings. Plummer’s home run was his first homer of his career. Morgan scored nine times in the sixth inning to rally from what had been a 7-0 deficit earlier in the game.
In game two, Bessemer led 4-2 going into the bottom of the seventh inning, but Morgan refused to quit.
The Senators tied the game on a sacrifice fly by Peyton Egbert, which scored Gunnar Henderson to tie the game.
In the bottom of the eighth, Bishop Price hit a chopper to third base to score Brown, who beat out the throw home to win the game.
“It really is unbelievable watching these guys day in and day out,” Thacker said. “First of all, they are best friends. Our mantra is family but they really live it.”
The Senators will move on to face Pike Liberal Arts or Lee-Scott in the state semifinals next week. Pike and Lee-Scott were scheduled to play Thursday, but those games were rained out.
They’ll start their best of three series on Friday.
Thacker said the Senators will enjoy the win Thursday, but will be back on the practice field Friday and already looking ahead.
“We take 24 hours, love it, learn from the mistakes we made but do what we do and then let’s go back to work,” Thacker said.
