WEST POINT — Oak Hill Academy baseball has become quite familiar with one-run games.
The Raiders got to the North State championship of the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools Class 4A playoffs with an 8-7 walk-off win over Marshall Academy last week.
Tuesday night, however, saw Oak Hill on the other side of the ball in the opening game of the championship series against Kirk Academy.
Trailing 5-4 in the sixth inning, Kirk took the lead for good with a towering three-run home run to left field, and a late rally from Oak Hill wasn’t enough as the Raiders fell, 7-6.
“It was a hard-fought game from both sides,” Oak Hill head coach John Siary said. “I couldn’t be happier with our guys’ performance. We hung in there as best we could. They just had a few more hits than us, made a few more plays than us.”
Tuesday’s game broke the home cooking that both teams experienced in the regular season, with Kirk (15-11) taking two of three against Oak Hill (17-9), but all three games won by the home team.
The Raiders looked to continue that to even out the season series at 2-2, but Kirk shortstop Hudson Maddox bucked the trend with his sixth-inning blast.
“That hurt,” Siary said. “We were up, but it happens. We see it all the time. They’re a good ball club, I give them credit. We could do a little bit more on our end, though.”
Despite what turned into a back-and-forth heavyweight bout, Oak Hill stormed out to a 3-0 lead after two-straight bases-loaded walks and an RBI sacrifice fly from Ty Harden.
That three-run cushion went away after a three-run third from Kirk, benefiting off a bases-loaded walk and HBP.
First baseman Smith Chaney proved to be a difference-maker for the Raiders down the stretch, recording three RBIs, including a pair of RBI groundouts late.
“I was just sitting fastball, waiting middle,” Chaney said. “We had a tighter zone. I had runners on third and I had to do it for the team, had to do my job and get some RBIs.”
Tuesday was far from the start to this semifinal series that Oak Hill wanted, but with a best-of-three, the ball is now squarely in Kirk’s court heading into the second game.
Down 1-0 going into Thursday night, the pressure is on Kirk to close the series as the Raiders look to send it back to West Point for a winner-take-all third game.
“We’re still very tip-top confidence,” Chaney said. “We got this.”
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