STEENS — Making history proved to be a bit tricky for the Columbus Christian Academy baseball team on Thursday, but once they did, reaching the third round of the MAIS 2A Tournament was a breeze.
The Rams survived allowing seven walks and hitting three batters over the final four innings and got a clutch two-out, two-run single from Daniel Pate during a four-run fourth-inning rally to post a 7-4 win over Riverdale in Game 2 of their second-round series. It was the first time Columbus Christian won a postseason baseball game.
While the Rebels’ pitching staff wore down, Jackson Howard and Drake Shaw combined on a five-inning one-hitter in Game 3, striking out 10 while walking two as the Rams rolled into the third round with a 14-0 win.
The Rams got back on their feet after a six-error disaster in Game 1 on Monday in Coushatta, Louisiana.
“We overcame a lot of adversity, going six hours away in Louisiana, then came here with our heads on straight, ready to play baseball after two weeks off,” Columbus Christian coach K.C. Cunningham said. “Our guys really showed up tonight.”
The key hit of the opener came from Pate, who lashed a hanging curve into right-center field to score Shaw and McCory Humphreys after the Rebels intentionally walked Jackson Howard in front of him for the second time. The first time, Pate struck out.
“They walked him because they don’t think I can hit because i’ve been in a slump,” said Pate, who admitted to taking such things personally. “I was just like, I’ve got to put the ball in play, get a base hit and just pull out of the slump. That was my goal, and I just got a pitch I liked and drove it.”
The hit gave Columbus Christian a 5-2 lead.
“He was kind of in a slump, just trying to get back in the groove after two weeks off,” Cunningham said. “He went up there and got hold of a ball, and the rest of the night he was hitting the ball.”
A hit batter sandwiched between two walks gave Riverdale a bases-loaded, one-out situation against Luke Phillips in the fifth. But Phillips, who ended the first two innings with strikeouts, appeared to get untracked quickly by striking out cleanup hitter Monroe McCarty on three pitches.
“Support from my teammates,” was Phillips’ explanation. “Just pushing through. We had to win this game, move on to the next one, then move on to the third round.”
Phillips did plunk Denver Williams to force in a run, but Lahndon Townley prevented further damage with a fine lunging catch of a fly to right to end the inning, preserving a 5-3 CCA lead.
Phillips threw 110 pitches to get through 5 1/3 innings, and he was lifted with one out in the sixth in favor of Howard, who struck out four batters down the stretch. Strikeouts helped him get out of another bases-loaded situation in the sixth and the first two Rebels getting aboard in the seventh.
Although 17 Rebels reached base, they only had three hits, none for extra bases. It didn’t get any better for them in the nightcap.
Howard started and got himself out of the only jam he faced in three innings of work. In a situation similar to what Phillips faced in the fifth inning of the opener, he walked the first batter, hit the second, then walked the third on four pitches before running a 3-0 count on the fourth.
Suddenly, he regained his form.
With the Riverdale dugout mockingly chanting, “Ball eight,” Howard instead bounced back to strike out Colton Massey, did the same to Ben Almond and then got McCarty to fly out weakly to second to end the only threat the Rebels would muster in the second game.
After that, it was all Rams, who erupted for five runs in the third and seven runs in the fourth, with a lot of help from a worn-out Riverdale pitching staff. While CCA tallied 10 hits in four innings, each of the last four runs of the third was forced in by a walk or a hit batter. The first run came thanks to doubles by Phillips and Pate.
Cunningham was not surprised it was the Rebels’ pitching which wore down first.
“I’ve got plenty of pitching,” he said. “I’ve got guys I haven’t even thrown yet. We’re really deep in our pitching corps, and that gives us an advantage.”
In the fourth, it was wild pitches and passed balls, as Riverdale catcher Landon Barrett spent much of the game scrambling toward the backstop. In between the free bases, Shaw belted a two-run double, and Phillips lashed an RBI single.
That long half-inning was followed by a very short one, as five hours after the first game started Shaw recorded the only 1-2-3 inning of the day, striking out the side to clinch the series.
Shaw, Phillips and Howard each drove in two runs for the Rams; Phillips had three hits while Shaw, Howard and Caleb Farlow each had two. Phillips scored three runs, while Shaw, Pate, Townley, Emerson Weeks and Jacob Minga each scored two.
So the Rams, making just their third postseason appearance, have their first playoff series victory.
“I knew we had a ton of potential,” Phillips said. “We had a lot of new players, and I knew that they could help us in a lot of ways. As the season went on, it just got better and better.”
The Rams will face Humphreys Academy or Tensas Academy in the Class 2A semifinals, four wins away from an MAIS championship.
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