No. 6 Leroy was within a few feet of tying Game 2 of the Class 1A state championship baseball series in the sixth inning Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Hackleburg centerfielder JaQuan Reeder made sure it didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
Reeder threw a laser to the plate on Andrew Mauldin\u2019s single to centerfield, cutting down John Foster and preserving a 1-run Hackleburg lead. The second-ranked Panthers hung on for a 5-4 victory at Jacksonville State\u2019s Jim Case Stadium, capturing the school\u2019s second state baseball title.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a program win,\u201d coach Jon McKinney said. \u201cFor the past two years, we\u2019ve come very close \u2013 not only in baseball \u2013 but football and basketball as well. I\u2019m so proud and so happy these guys were able to go out the correct way. Their legacy is champions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hackleburg (33-7) trailed 4-3 early in the game but tied it with a run in the third and took the lead for good on MVP Ross Hudson\u2019s RBI single in the fourth. Hudson finished 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs and a run scored.<\/p>\n
Leroy (28-13) had several chances to tie or take the lead, the last coming in the crucial sixth inning. Foster singled and went to second on a groundout, setting up Mauldin\u2019s single. <\/p>\n
\u201cAndrew did a good job,\u201d Leroy coach Matt Braun said. \u201cHe probably hit it too hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reeder came up throwing, hitting catcher Edge Weeks with a strike. Weeks tagged out a diving Foster to save the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cCredit to Reeder,\u201d Braun said. \u201cHe made a great throw. We had a chance to tie the game there, and I felt like we had to take it. We wanted to make Reeder make a great throw, and he did. It was a first-class throw.\u201d<\/p>\n
McKinney knew immediately that Reeder and Weeks may have saved the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as that play happened, I looked at my assistants, and we just said, \u2018We may have just seen the play of the game,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIt was an unbelievable throw by JaQuan and a great job by Edge hanging onto the ball. Nothing shocks me with these guys. I thought off the bat, JaQuan might have a chance to get him. We\u2019ve seen it before. I hate that we saw it for the last time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maddox Vickery pitched the first six innings to get the win for Hackleburg. He allowed 8 hits and 4 runs. He struck out 2. Blaise Vickery struck out 2 of the final 3 batters for the save. Sawyer Sullivan took the loss for Leroy, allowing 5 runs on 8 hits in 6 innings. He struck out 6.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited for the community,\u201d Weeks said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been waiting for this for a long time, to put another title on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Key statistics: Hackleburg \u2013 Jon Hasten Stidham was 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs. Weeks was 1-for-1 with 2 walks and 2 runs scored. Kross Weeks was 1-for-3 with 2 runs scored. Leroy \u2013 Brady Keith was 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs and 2 runs scored. Colt Glen was 1-for-3 with an RBI.<\/p>\n
Did you know? Hackleburg\u2019s softball and baseball teams were playing for state titles at the same time at two different locations. The Panther softball team lost to Kinston in the 1A finals at Oxford\u2019s Choccolocco Park. <\/p>\n
Did you know 2? Hackleburg walked one Leroy batter in Game 1 on Wednesday and no batters on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to give them a lot of credit,\u201d Braun said. \u201cAll year, we got hit by a lot of pitches, drew a lot of walks. Every game, we tried to create plays with guys on base. We needed baserunners. Their guys did an outstanding job of not walking anyone. That takes us out of our game a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
They said it:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Class 1A and you saw what the stands looked like. This community is extremely special. Our girls were playing softball at the same time. It\u2019s just an amazing time. I\u2019m so happy for our community. We\u2019ve seen some heartbreak and some tragedy. To see this group end as champions \u2026 I\u2019m so happy for them.\u201d \u2013 McKinney. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel real. I don\u2019t know what to say.\u201d \u2013 Reeder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had some great teams at Leroy. This was the 6th time we were in the finals, and we\u2019ve had some great teams that didn\u2019t make it here. This team came further than any team we\u2019ve ever had. I couldn\u2019t be prouder. It\u2019s a huge accomplishment for these guys to get here. We didn\u2019t win our area. I think we had the toughest road to get here, and they answered every challenge.\u201d \u2013 Braun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 6 Leroy was within a few feet of tying Game 2 of the Class 1A state championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[11676,5,11677,3263,11678,2431],"class_list":{"0":"post-30084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-ahsaa","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-bbh","11":"tag-high-school-sports","12":"tag-high-schoool-baseball","13":"tag-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}