Fagan’s bloop single in ninth gives Piedmont walk-off win over Staley (Mo.) in Spring Break Experience
FRIDAY’S GAMES
Piedmont 11, Staley (Mo.) 10 (9 inns.)
Piedmont 9, Dothan 7
Staley (Mo.) 8, Dothan 5
By Al Muskewitz
OXFORD – As exciting as the experience may seem, the bad thing about playing a team from 760 miles away is the hitters have never seen the pitchers they were going to face before. On the other hand, the pitchers have never seen Piedmont’s Jack Hayes or Ridge Fagan hit before, either.
Hayes was just a sixth-grader the last time the Staley (Mo.) Falcons pulled in from Kansas City for the Choccolocco Park Spring Break Experience and none of the current Staley players were on that roster, unless you count sophomore second baseman Lukas Wilson, the coach’s son, who was the team’s 11-year-old batboy at the time.
The game went back and forth the way you might expect from two teams who hadn’t played before and never got a chance to scout each other. In the end, as they traded leads and rallies to tie, it became a battle for state pride.
Eventually, Piedmont walked one off for the Alabama boys, winning 11-10 on Fagan’s two-out, two-strike flare to center that scored McClane Mohon in the bottom of the ninth.
Staley (2-3) had leads in the first (4-0), seventh (8-7) and eighth (10-8) innings, but the Bulldogs (14-4) rallied every time. Jake Austin singled home the tying run in the seventh after the Falcons scored four in the top of the inning. Austin Estes tripled home a run in the eighth and then stole home to tie it 10-10.
“We were put in a lot of adverse situations,” Piedmont coach Matt Deerman said. “I tried to tell them don’t let the way we handled one situation bad outweigh the five times we came through and responded. We never quit and kept on.
“That was a heck of a baseball team we just played and our guys competed their tails and found a way to win. I’m super proud of them.”
Senior right-hander Daniel Scott started the ninth for Staley. He got the first out, then hit the next two batters and was pulled. Jacob Allinder struck out the first batter he faced for the second out and was one strike away from saving it.
Fagan fouled off a 1-2 pitch, then lifted a soft fly into short center that no one could reach, bringing Mohon home with the winning run.
“The pitcher was it throwing pretty good,” Fagan said. “The first one came by and I was like this is the hardest pitch I’ve faced in a while. It took a couple tries to get my timing down, but once I got that first foul ball I was pretty confident I could get a bat on the ball.
“I honestly didn’t think (his hit) was going to drop. I knew it wasn’t hard hit. I thought the shortstop made a good break on it and I thought he was going to get underneath it and catch it.”
Hayes got the best of the out-of-towners in his first two at-bats, ripping an RBI double to drive in the Bulldogs’ first run and then blasting a second-inning grand slam to give them the lead a 5-4 lead. He pulled the grand slam down the left field line that went out just inside the foul pole.
“I was pretty pumped because the past couple games I really hadn’t got much to hit,” Hayes said. “I knew these guys didn’t know what I could do or know if I could hit or not so I knew they were going to give me something to it and I had to take advantage of it.”
The Falcons were running on pure adrenaline. They pulled into town about 3 a.m. for their 12:30 p.m. game, but didn’t look worse for the wear of a 17-hour bus ride early in the game. They were due in shortly after midnight but had to pull over multiple times along the way to make sure their bus motor didn’t overheat stranding them in the middle of nowhere.
Their first four batters reached safely off Piedmont freshman starter Brodie Homesley and all of them scored. Dylan Grego, a shortstop committed to Ball State, hit a two-run triple, Gavin Siegfried, a catcher committed to Missouri JUCO power Crowder JC, followed with another triple and Tyler Leonard had a sacrifice fly.
“Getting in at 3 in the morning I was a little bit nervous how we were going to be … but I thought we hit the ball good all day long,” Staley coach Dave Wilson said. “They’re young kids; they ought to be resilient and they had a lot of energy going into it.
“I thought we fought real hard. We never gave up; proud of our kids for that. We’ve just got to clean up a lot of mistakes.”
The Falcons bounced back in their second game of the day, beating Dothan 8-5. Siegfried drove in three runs, Jon Ludwig went 2-for-2 with two RBIs, and Aiden Bahn turned back a bases-loaded threat in the seventh. for the save.
Staley (Mo.) 400 000 420 – 10 13 4
Piedmont 150 100 121 – 11 8 0
WP: Noah Reedy. LP: Daniel Scott. 2B: Dylan Grego (S), Jack Hayes (P). 3B: Gavin Siegfried (S), Dylan Grego (S), Austin Estes (P). HR: Jack Hayes (P).
Piedmont 9, Dothan 7: The Bulldogs (15-4) were in another back-and-forth game in their nightcap and took the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth and Austin Estes saved it in the seventh.
The game followed a similar track to their opener. They fell behind and took the lead in the first, fell behind and tied it in the second. They took the lead in the fourth on Max Hanson’s sacrifice fly, Dothan tied it in the fifth and the Bulldogs retook the lead for good in the sixth on RBI singles by Noah Reedy and McClane Mohon.
Estes came on in the seventh and set the 7A Tigers down in order with two strikeouts and a ground out.
Jack Hayes drove in the Bulldogs’ first two runs with a two-run double in the first and was 3-for-3 with three RBIs in the game. Reedy and Mohon both had two hits and two RBIs and Estes had two hits.
Dothan 330 010 0 – 7 9 2
Piedmont 420 102 x – 9 11 3
WP: Cole Wilson. LP: Hunter Williams. 2B: Jake Austin (P), Jack Hayes (P). 3B: Carter Davis (D), Austin Estes (P). HR: Blake Wynn (D). [*** read more]
