Oxford, AL – Choccolocco Monsters overcome five-run deficit, walk it off against Gainesville GolDiggers to force tie atop Sunbelt League headed into Saturday’s rematch.
By Joe Medley
Who says a summer wood-bat team, with a hastily assembled roster of college players hailing from California to Georgia, can’ develop chemistry.
With the Choccolocco Monsters down five runs after two innings Friday, their chemistry came through in a big way.
Jake Goolsby’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth gave the Monsters a walk-off, 7-6 victory over the visiting Sunbelt League-leading Gainesville GolDiggers at Choccolocco Park.
That outcome tied both teams atop the league standings at 16-7 headed into Saturday’s 6:05 p.m. rematch at Choccolocco Park.
It also marked the Monsters’ eighth win in nine games to rally and challenge Gainesville.
“We’ve got a special team,” Goolsby said. “With this team, we’re never out of a game. It’s just a different feeling in the dugout.
“We can be down 20, and will still think we can come back.”
The Monsters chemistry came through after a rugged start. Alexandria High grad Andrew Allen, the Sunbelt pitcher of the week after winning his first two starts, allowed three runs in the first inning, and Jacques Walker crushed a two-run home run to right field against reliever Harris Burns to make it 5-0 in the second.
“It was 5-0, and it felt like it was a hundred to nothing for a long time,” Monsters coach Ricky Ray Clayton said. “We got off to a bad start, bad tempo, long game, and it took us a long time to come back from it.
“Andrew was real, real sick, and it’s just the dog in him. He wasn’t going to let me know, and I found out during the top of the first. I noticed he wasn’t himself.”
Burns settled down after the second inning and started hanging zeros on the scoreboard. He wound up working 5 1/3 innings, including four scoreless innings before relievers Griff Minor and Grainger West took their turns.
With zeroes taking over the scoreboard, the Monsters regained footing. Their feet started rounding the bases in their two-run sixth inning, which included Rashad Robinson’s RBI single and Goolsby’s sacrifice fly to score Robinson, wrapped around Cole Tremain’s double.
Tremain’s two-run double launched the Monsters’ three-run eighth, and Goolsby’s grounder brought home the trying run to make it 5-5.
Tremain’s double was a “humongous hit,” Clayton said.
“And he got down (in the count) there, but he’s done it for us all year,” Clayton said. “He’s come through in the big situations.”
Tremain is a walking, talking, swinging, hitting example of the Monsters’ chemistry. The team announced its move back to Oxford from Columbus, Ga., where it played in 2023, in late spring. General manager Roby Brooks needed all the help he could get assembling a roster late stage in the Sunbelt offseason.
Tremain played junior college ball in his native California then for Baylor University. He didn’t have a place to play this summer until he got a call from his “best friend,” Oxford High grad Trey Higgins.
The two roomed and played summer ball together in Danville, Ill., last year.
“He gave me a call and said the Monsters needed another outfielder,” Tremain said. “I got in my car and drove straight out here.”
Tremain made the 12-hour drive from Waco, Texas, to Oxford and rooms with Higgins in Oxford.
Tremain’s two-run double in the eighth helped the Monsters tie the game, but they needed more heroics after a two-out passed ball with bases loaded helped the GolDiggers retake a 6-5 lead in the top of the ninth.
Oxford grad Hayes Harrison tied the game with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly, setting up Goolsby’s game-winning single.
“I just came up and was trying to get something I can hit,” said Goolsby, whose three RBIs on the night gave him 20 for the season. “He threw me a fastball, and I got a pretty good swing on it.”
Monsters players sprung from the dugout and chased Goolsby into the outfield in celebration. On Saturday, they will play for the outright league lead.
Five games remain in the regular season, and the Sunbelt’s top four make the league’s playoff. Goolsby called the Monsters’ opportunity “unreal.”
“This team wasn’t even going to be a thing until, like, two week’s before the season started,” the Springville High grad and University of Charlotte slugger said. “It’s just God’s plan, really.
“That’s what I think it is. There’s no other way this team got together. I’ve just got a lot of faith in this team.”
Game updates
–First pitch, 7:05 p.m.
–T1: Gainesville pushes three runs across to lead 3-0.
–B1: Monsters get one-out double from Hayes Harrson, no runs.
–T2: Harris Burns in to pitch for the Monsters … Jacques Walker’s 2-run homer makes it 5-0.
–B2: Monsters get Fisher Moss’ two-out single, no runs.
–T3: Nothing doing for the GolDiggers.
–B3: Monsters get no runs on two hits.
–T4: GolDiggers go down in order.
–B4: Monsters go down in order.
–T5: Nothing for Gainesville.
–B5: Monsters go down in order, still trail 5-0.
–T6: Gainsville gets no runs on one hit.
–B6: Gainesville pitching change, Thompson for Dodgens. … Rashad Robinson gets the Monsters on the board with an RBI single: 5-1. … Pitching change for Gainesville, Anderson for Thompson. … Following Cole Tremain’s double, Jake Goolsby hits sac fly to score Robinson: 5-2.
–T7: With one on and one out, pitching change for the Monsters, Griff Minor for Harris Burns. … GolDiggers get no runs on one hit.
–B7: Monsters get a walk, no runs.
–T8: No runs on one hit for the GolDiggers.
–B8: Pitching change for Gainesville, Smith for Anderson. … Bogue on to pitch for Gainesville … Cole Tremain’s two-run double brings Monsters within 5-4. … Balk moves Tremain to third. … Goosby grounds home the tying run, 5-5.
–T9: Grainger West on to pitch for the Monsters. … Gainesville scores on a two-out passed ball with bases loaded, leads 6-5.
–B9: Hayes Harrison ties the game with a bases-loaded sac fly, 6-6. … Goolsby wins it with a single, 7-6.
FINAL: Monsters win, 7-6.
