Late rally pushes Sparkman to playoff sweep of Bob Jones
Madison- In a stunning turn of events Friday night, the best baseball team record-wise in the history of Bob Jones High School had their promising season ended in the first round of the state playoffs. Sparkman took game one 6-5 and game two 6-4.
Unlike the two previous meetings between the rivals this season, the stakes could not have been higher this time.
A team that won 34 regular season games failed to win a game in a best 2 out of 3 playoff series against their biggest rival. What made it even more unbelievable was that the Senators defeated the two Bob Jones staff aces who combined were 18-0 and each with an ERA under 1.00.
Sparkman brought a large, loud contingent of fans that had plenty to cheer about when Sparkman unexpectedly won game one in which Bob Jones staff ace Trey Wingenter pitched.
“It’s hard,” said Bob Jones head coach Jeff Bell after the loss in game 2.
“The hardest part for me is going to tell these 11 seniors that their season is over. But we knew Sparkman had a great baseball team and they had been playing great the last couple of weeks. We would have had to play perfect to beat them tonight.
When we were up 5-1 going into the seventh I knew it wasn’t over. They were going to keep swinging and they got a big hit at a big time.”
Sparkman started Adam Lau at pitcher in game 1 but he lasted only one inning. Lau gave up two runs as Patrick Mullin got a leadoff walk and Austin Sanders belted a 2-run home run.
Sparkman got a run back in the second inning as Kevin Anderson reached on an error and came around to score on a double by Will Martin.
Lefty Matthew Woody came on and held Bob Jones scoreless for 2 innings. Using a variety of slow curves and off speed pitches, Woody had Patriot hitters off balance.
The Patriots broke through in the fourth inning on a pair of singles by Luke Pierce and Patrick Mullin. Pierce stole second and scored on a throwing error by second baseman Sam Tralango as Mason Thronberry reached base again. Throneberry then scored from second base on a long sacrifice fly by Trey Wingenter. Austin Sanders then doubled but was left on base.
For the game, Bob Jones left eight base runners on. Hitting stars included Pat Mullin who scored three runs and Austin Sanders who had a home run and double.
Wingenter struggled with his control at times and had some long innings. He needed 51 pitches to get through the first two innings. He walked 5 batters and hit 2 batters.
He benefitted from some solid fielding. With a runner on third in the fifth inning, second baseman Mason Throneberry made a sliding catch along the foul line of a fair ball to rob Austin Sexton of an RBI single.
Wingenter was over 100 pitches when he went out for the seventh inning. He allowed a walk and a hit and did not record an out. Closer Austin may came on with 2 runners on and no outs. He walked Justin Gilliam to get to Daniel Garner, a senior Mississippi State signee who leads the Senators in batting.
Garner struck the deciding blow, a grand slam home run over the left field fence. Garner had made solid contact in the other at bats and was 1 for 3 before stroking his fifth home run of the season. He had a single in the first inning but was left on base. The blow was career home run #20 for the Sparkman catcher, but easily the biggest of his career.
“That’s the guy we want up there is that situation and he came through for us in the clutch,” Sparkman coach Kellen Greer said.
For Garner it was his first grand slam this season. “This is the biggest homerun for me and to come against these guys, our most heated rivals is big,” Garner said.
“We saved our two best pitchers for the last two games because they were throwing Trey and he had that unbelievable ERA. We just stuck to our plan and when we got them on the ropes in the seventh we knew we could take it,” Garner said.
The win was the first playoff win for this group of Sparkman seniors who had gone 0 for 2 in previous years in the playoffs. Sparkman fought back from a 5-1 deficit to take a 1-run lead, 6-5.
Sparkman coach Kellen Greer sent out Brady Ray to close the game in the bottom of the seventh inning and he held Bob Jones hitless and scoreless.
After the loss in game 1, Bob Jones coach Jeff Bell knew he had to go with Charlie Weaver, the other ace on the staff to try to even the series.
But, like Wingenter, Weaver struggled with his control. Despite being staked to a 3-run lead in the first inning, Weaver gave up single runs in the second and third innings and 3 big ones in the fourth. Justin Gilliam laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to plate a run for Sparkman. Tyler Hall had a sacrifice fly to finish the inning.
Austin Sexton pitched a complete game for Sparkman giving up only a 3-run home run in the first inning. He pitched around two errors in the fifth as his infielders let two pop flies drop. Sexton then struck out Matt Bolger with runners at second and third to end the inning.
Sexton went the complete game throwing 135 pitches giving up only 4 hits and 4 runs. At the plate he doubled in Garner with Sparkman’s first run.
Weaver pitched into the fifth inning and was replaced by Zack Trussel who limited the damage and pitched a scoreless sixth inning as well.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this baseball team,” Bell said. “We had a great year. We accomplished a lot. A lot of these seniors have bigger and better things to look forward to.”
