PREP BASEBALL: Montgomery Academy earns playoff spot, Trinity clinches area title
MA pitcher Vincent Desautels pitched six-plus shutout innings to lead the Eagles’ to a playoff-clinching win over ACA. (Tim Gayle)
COMBINED REPORTS
Hays Marks admitted he never saw the hit-and-run sign from Montgomery Academy coach Brad Parker.
“I missed it,” he said. “I didn’t get the sign.”
Parker wasn’t too upset at the end result.
“The funny part about it was it was a hit and run,” Parker said, “so he definitely hit it and he definitely ran. It really got us going. It was kind of stagnant for the first three innings and we needed something to go our way and he provided that spark.”
Marks blasted the first pitch from Alabama Christian pitcher Mason Henry over the center field fence for a two-run home run to break a scoreless tie in the fourth inning and send the Eagles into the state baseball playoffs with a 6-0 win at Ron Nunn Baseball Complex on Friday afternoon.
“I got a good read on it,” Marks said. “I met it with the bat good.”
The win gives the Eagles a 3-3 area record and the runner-up position in the 3A Area 5 race. Montgomery Academy (18-14) will make the playoffs for the first time since 2019 and will face Area 6 champion Glenwood in the first round of the state playoffs next week.
“We always talk about peaking at the right time,” said Parker, the Eagles’ first-year coach. “I think last year we peaked early and we kind of fizzled out late. We wanted to make sure with the schedule we made that we were able to get better early in the season so we were prepared for area play and peaked at the right time.”
Vincent Desautels threw 6.1 shutout innings, striking out seven and allowing just five hits before reaching the maximum pitch count and leaving the mound. Finley Haigler pitched the remaining 0.2 innings.
“He pounded the zone, did exactly what we asked him to do,” Parker said. “I hate his pitch count ran out and he didn’t get to finish but it is what it is and Finley did a great job closing the door, throwing strikes.
Montgomery Academy continued its hot streak at the plate, adding two runs in the fifth inning on a groundout and an RBI single by William Marks, then two more in the sixth with the help of back-to-back doubles by Haigler and Chapman Baker.
“I think we’re really on a hot streak right now,” Hays Marks said, “which is good because we’re right around the corner from the playoffs and that’s when you want to be playing your best ball.”
Reid McBride went 2 for 4 for Montgomery Academy, while Teilan Long went 4 for 4 to lead ACA.
In the second game, ACA pulled out a 12-7 win. Kingston Nelson was 2 for 3 with an RBI, Gage Vinson was 2 for 3 and Paxton Haigler was 2 for 4 with two runs scored. Finley Haigler went 1 for 4 and drove in a pair of runs.
Alabama Christian took a 6-0 lead into the third inning and scored three more runs in the bottom of the third to lead 9-5. David Johnson went 2 for 3 with an RBI and scored twice, Jackson Burton went 2 for 3 with three RBIs, Alex Heilman went 2 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI and Jake Hurt went 3 for 4, scored twice and drove in a run.
After smashing 15 hits in an 11-1 victory over ACA on Thursday, Montgomery Academy pounded out 10 hits in the first game on Friday and 11 in the second game, giving them 36 in the three-game series.
“It took us a while because our basketball guys missed eight or nine games,” Parker said. “It took us a little bit to find the right combination, the right lineups. I knew this week, during BP, the way the guys are locked in, hitting it to all fields, I had a really good feeling about the matchup. Everybody, one through nine, has been really swinging it. Coach (Phillip) Haigler has done a really good job of coaching the guys up on the mound and our pitching has been lights out. When you have good pitching, the hitting just follows and it’s contagious.”
Trinity 7, Tallassee 4
TALLASSEE -- Land Sharpless pitched a complete game on the mound and went 2 for 3 at the plate to lead Trinity to 7-4 victory, a sweep of the series with Tallassee and the 4A Area 5 championship at Southside Middle School on Friday.
Trinity won 11-0 at Trinity on Thursday, setting up a winner-take-all scenario for the area title on Friday. Sharpless did his part, allowing four runs on six hits while striking out five in seven innings of work on Friday. The two teams did not play the third game of the series after determining the area champion and runner-up in the first two games.
Trinity will play host to West Blocton at Whittle-Armstrong Field next week in the first round of the 4A state playoffs, while Tallassee will travel to Area 6 champion Bibb County.
Tallassee broke a 1-1 tie in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Jack Butler, but the Wildcats rallied in the third with a two-run single by P.J. Shelton, an RBI single by Luke Hall and an RBI groundout by Patton Mitchell for a 5-2 lead.
Shelton went 2 for 4 with a pair of RBIs, Hall went 2 for 3 with a double and John Michael Cox went 2 for 4 and scored twice to lead Trinity at the plate. Mason Hawkins went 1 for 4 and scored twice and Brody Owens went 1 for 3 and drove in the Wildcats’ first run.
Hudson Timmerman went 2-for-2 with a double, scored twice and drove in a run for the Tigers, while Butler went 2 for 2 and drove in a pair of runs.
Hamp Love, the Tallassee starter, lasted just 1.2 innings, allowing three hits and an unearned run. Avery Brantley pitched the final 5.1 innings, allowing eight hits and six runs, five earned.
In Thursday’s game, Shelton pitched a five-hit shutout over five innings to give the Wildcats the win. Sharpless went 2 for 3 and drove in a pair of runs, Brandon Boswell went 1 for 3 and drove in three runs, Patton Mitchell went 1 for 2 with two RBIs and Drew Sanders went 2 for 2 with an RBI as the Trinity offense roughed up four Tallassee pitchers.