The game-winning run in the Mississippi University for Women’s 7-6 victory over Tougaloo College on Wednesday was an unlikely way to end a baseball game.
Blaize Gann didn’t make solid contact, sending a squib hit toward the right side of the infield. With two outs and pinch-runner Xavier Harrison on second base, Gann wasn’t thinking that would end the game in the bottom of the eighth.
“I was not,” the Owls outfielder acknowledged. “I was thinking first and third and get it to the next guy, and hopefully he can get it.”
Leading off second base, Harrison didn’t think the contact was enough to win, either.
“Not really,” the New Hope High School graduate said. “I knew something was about to happen, though. I knew my boy Blaize was going to be safe no matter what, because he was going to run as hard as he can.”
Gann agreed with that part of the equation.
“As soon as the first baseman took off, I knew I was on,” he said.
Indeed, with Tougaloo first baseman Tyler Hickman and second baseman Matt Jones initially breaking toward the ball, the odds of one of them getting back to the bag were slim. And as Gann was racing down the first-base line, preparing to dive in safely with an infield single, Harrison was around third and speeding toward home.
“No matter what, he was going,” Owls coach Scott Mularz said. “We were going to make them have to turn around and make the throw.”
“At first, I was looking, I’ll try and get third,” Harrison said. “Then I looked up at the coach, and he was like, you’ve got to go home. So I was like, I’ve got to get home.”
“I was very surprised when I turned around and looked, and the runner was going home,” Gann said.
Gann’s a bright guy, a nursing student who was the valedictorian at Houston High School, so he probably wasn’t the only one surprised. But that’s exactly what Harrison was doing.
Harrison had entered the game for catcher Bret Linton, who had walked, and took second on a wild pitch. With two outs, he took off on Gann’s contact and never stopped running, scoring the winning run in the first game of a doubleheader on Wednesday at Heritage Academy.
Tougaloo starter Christian Borders held the Owls to two hits through five innings, retiring eight in a row at one point. But one of those hits was a two-run home run from Blake Estabrook in the bottom of the first.
Between that and the Owls’ next big blast, a three-run shot by Austin Telano in the sixth, The W managed just two hits, a leadoff single in the fifth from Baker Watson and an infield single by Joel Estabrook two batters before Telano’s homer to left.
By that time, the Bulldogs had taken a 6-2 lead on a grand slam by Bradford Patton, who also had driven in the first two Tougaloo runs with a double in the first. Telano made it 6-5, a lead the Bulldogs took into the bottom of the seventh.
Landon Clark, who earned the win with two innings of one-hit relief with five strikeouts, singled to lead off the seventh and was sacrificed to second by Tanner Evans. A pop to third brought up Joel Estabrook as the Owls’ last chance, and he ripped a double to center to score Clark, send the game into extra innings and set the stage for Gann’s winning hit.
“This team’s done that all year,” Mularz said. “They’ve always fought, fought, fought. I’ve been very proud of them all year.”
The second game required no such comebacks or clutch plays, as the Owls used two very different six-run rallies to rout the Bulldogs 13-0 in a game halted in the middle of the fifth by the mercy rule.
The Owls scored six runs in the third on just one hit — a two-run single by Telano — to break open the game, mostly against Tommy Smith, the third of six Tougaloo pitchers. The first six batters in the inning scored, four of them reaching on walks.
But if the third inning was the Bulldogs giving away runs, the fourth inning was the Owls taking them, rather emphatically. They scored six runs on seven hits, including a three-run home run from Evans, a double by catcher Avery Benson and a two-run single by Clark.
“We put some good swings together and played some good, fundamental baseball,” Mularz said. “That’s what we’ve been working hard on.”
Joel Estabrook started and worked three hitless innings to improve to 3-4. Brandon Fenimore followed with a hitless fourth. Zay Coleman pitched the fifth, allowing a leadoff home run by George Carmichael before striking out Jones on a 3-2 pitch to end the game.
It was senior day for the Owls, with Linton, Blake Estabrook, Joel Estabrook, Dane Bevell and Gann playing their final home game. Gann, who has started 28 of 30 games after getting just five at-bats last season, feels strongly that The W was the right choice for him.
“It was,” he said. “I’ve met some of my best friends and had some pretty great memories. I’ve had a blast.”
“The seniors went out with a bang, and I couldn’t be happier,” Mularz said.
But the season is not over. Despite the 12-18 record, the Owls have been ranked in the top 10 among USCAA schools this season, and 10 teams will be invited to the USCAA Small College World Series, to be held May 15-19 in DuBois, Pennsylvania.
“It feels really good, going into the last stretch, especially going to the postseason if we get there, and I know we’re going to get there, no matter what,” Harrison said. “We’re going to fight hard to get there. I know this team.”
Before that, the Owls will spend this weekend in Wilmore, Kentucky, where they will face Asbury twice and West Virginia Institute of Technology once to close the regular season.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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Blaize Gann steps up to the plate during Misissippi University for Women's second game against Tougaloo College on Wednesday at Heritage Academy. Gann beat out an infield single to drive in the winning run in the opener. Tom Rysinski/Dispatch Staff
Mississippi University for Women baseball players Tanner Evans (4) and Xavier Harrison (15) prep the area around home plate between games of Wednesday's doubleheader against Tougaloo College. Tom Rysinski/Dispatch Staff
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