AISA SEMIS: Macon East falls short in deciding Game 3
Thad McKinney started for Macon East in Game 3 of the series against Clarke Prep on Wednesday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
After a walkoff victory in the second game of the Alabama Independent School Association semifinals, Macon East coach Christian Coston hoped his team would use Tuesday’s dramatic victory as motivation to win the third game of the series against Clarke Prep on Wednesday.
The Knights never seemed to find an offensive rhythm, however, as the Gators rolled into the Class AA finals with an 8-3 win at Paterson Field.
Clarke Prep (27-5) will play Southern on Wednesday for the Class AA state championship, while the Knights end their season at 25-15 after making their fifth consecutive trip to the AISA semifinals.
“We came out flat,” Coston said. “We just didn’t have it today as I thought we would. But shout out to Clarke Prep. They’re a good baseball team. We knew it was going to be a battle. We didn’t pitch it well enough. They got some timely hits and we did not.”
The Gators didn’t have a lot of hits off of starter Thad McKinney and reliever Bryant Morrison, but came up with the timely hit in both the second and third innings as a bases-loaded double by Max Anderson cleared the bases in the second inning for a 4-0 lead and a two-run double by Ayden Reid helped Clarke Prep answer the challenge when the Knights scored three runs in the top of the inning.
The Knights had a pair of bunt hits to lead off the third inning and appeared on the verge of a big inning, but pitcher Cooper Clemmons fielded Carter Hopson’s bunt and threw to the plate for the tag on Sam Wallace. Jackson Todd reached base when Clemmons shuffled the grounder past the first baseman, allowing two runs to score, but a fly out was followed by Clemmons’ pickoff of Morrison at first, closing the door on the Knights’ best scoring opportunity.
Macon East batters went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position over the final four innings.
“We ran ourselves out of an inning,” Coston said. “We made a base-running error that gave them an out and got an out at the plate because of it. After that, we just couldn’t get anything spinning on offense. We just couldn’t get the timely hit.”
After Clarke Prep answered the Macon East rally with three runs in the bottom of the third, the Gators added another in the fourth for an 8-3 lead.
The Knights went through an up-and-down season, but came together late in the season to defeat Chambers Academy for the area title and reach the semifinals of the state playoffs with a different head coach for the third consecutive year.
The bulk of the Knights return next year, although Coston will have to replace seniors McKinney, Morrison, Hopson and David DeMaio.
“It was a challenging year,” Coston said. “At the end of the day, it’s a new school (for me), it’s a new team. They don’t know me, I don’t know them. Now we know each other, but now I’m losing four seniors. The standard at Macon East is (reaching) the semifinals and the championship. We’re going to be back and we’re going to continue that standard.”