FCA TOURNEY: ACA, Trinity not pleased with tie
Trinity’s Mac McClinton dives back to first ahead of the tag of ACA’s Caden Perry in Wednesday’s game at Riverwalk Stadium. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
No one seemed happy with Wednesday’s 3-3 tie in the 28th annual FCA Jason Armstrong Memorial Baseball Tournament.
Certainly not Alabama Christian, who had gotten three runs in the first inning and held the lead throughout the game until the final play.
“I feel like we played good defense most of the game,” ACA coach Manuel Guice said. “It’s unfortunate that a couple of their runs are coming off of errors. I feel like we played good defense outside of a couple of plays but in games like that, you have to play complete baseball.”
Certainly not Trinity, who had battled back to tie the game, only to discover the time constraints of the tournament wouldn’t allow the Wildcats an opportunity to win in extra innings.
“I’d rather, and I know we couldn’t, but I’d rather play it out, win or lose,” Trinity coach Ken Whittle said. “Because, to me, that’s why you play. You learn from both ends.
Chalk it up to early-season baseball, missed opportunities and two teams that don’t want a tie on their resume.
“Playing Trinity, a good team, I know it’s early and I don’t want to call it a playoff atmosphere, but it’s low scoring where one or two runs is going to decide the game,” Guice said. “That’s a tough playoff-type feel to it and when you have opportunities to plate runs, you have to take advantage of that. If you don’t, it’ll come back to bite you every single time.”
ACA did all their damage in the first inning off of Trinity starter Parker Patterson. Thomas Stovall lifted a fly ball to right field that was misplayed by Preston Berry and dropped in for a single. Isaac Warrick and Zac Westbrook followed with walks and Mason Prestage was hit by a pitch, loading the bases after Stovall scored on a wild pitch for a 1-0 lead.
Brandon Bice grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored another run and Trey Schlemmer doubled in a run, but a runner was thrown out at the plate following a wild pitch and Taylor Thornton popped up to end the threat after another walk and a hit batter had loaded the bases once more.
“We jumped out and scored the three, but even in the first inning we had a chance to plate a couple more and didn’t,” Guice said. “Throughout the game, we got runners on and messed up a couple of bunt attempts. We just could never get guys over and get that hit we needed to plate more runs.”
The Eagles would manage just three hits off of relievers Coleman Stanley and Grayson Ashe the remainder of the game, but squandered more opportunities when a runner was picked off base, another was thrown out trying to steal second and a third was called out for interference.
Trinity, meanwhile, scored an unearned run in the first and another in the seventh following ACA errors but managed just five hits and only hit the ball out of the infield on seven occasions.
“We’ve only played five games, so we have to get more games,” Whittle said. “I hope this will help us. We’ve tried to play more games early so we can get more at-bats live. It’s easy in practice. The hard part is hitting in game situations.”
The Wildcats clearly looked out of sync, both offensively and defensively, in the early moments of the game but seemed to get a spark in the third inning after ACA’s Prestage doubled to lead off the inning and Brandon Bice was hit by a pitch trying to bunt. Courtesy runner Jack Thomas was thrown out by Ashe trying to steal second, Prestage was picked off second by Stanley and Trey Schlemmer grounded out, ending the ACA threat.
“I just think sometimes some of our guys let things bother them that they have no control over,” Whittle said. “You’ve got to flush whatever it is and move on to the next situation and we have a tendency not to flush things when we make a mistake. We’ve got to learn how to handle the adversity and I think that just comes with playing more games and gaining more confidence.”
Bice and Warrick combined to hold the Wildcats in check at the plate, allowing just one unearned run on five hits.
“Brandon is a guy we wanted to look at, let him go a little bit today,” Guice said. “I think the most he had pitched up until today was about 40 pitches. I wanted to see what he could do and was very, very pleased with the way he came out. He threw strikes and was very efficient. And we brought Isaac in that pressure situation -- I wanted to see if he could close it out -- and I thought he did a good job. We pitched well enough to win, for sure.”
But the Eagles didn’t win it because Ashe hit a one-out single to left in the bottom of the seventh and scored the game-tying run when Ben Easterling launched a deep fly to left that was dropped by Stovall near the wall. Easterling, however, was thrown out between second and third to end the game, leaving both teams feeling unsatisfied.
Trinity (2-2-1) returns to action in the FCA tournament on Thursday with a game against Chilton County at Riverwalk Stadium at 2 p.m. ACA (2-3-1) will face Providence Christian on Thursday at Paterson Field at 6 p.m.