St. James gets key sweep of ACA in 3A Area 6 series
ACA second baseman Jackson McGuire readies to tag St. James’ Wils Johnson at second in the Trojans win over the Eagles. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
After losing their first 3A Area 6 game in a series with Alabama Christian Academy on Wednesday, St. James coach Keith Lucky called his players together for a conversation.
“I told just told them, ‘Y’all know what’s on the line here, it’s just a matter of getting out there and playing the game that you know how to play,’” Lucky said. “That’s all you can do. Trying to hype up the game as a coach is probably the worst thing you can do. These guys know how it it is, plus parents do a good-enough job of hyping it up for me.
“I was ready to quit (after Wednesday night’s game). We’ve got a good baseball team. We’ve just been like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all year long. One day we look like contenders, the next day we look like we’ve never played the game in our lives.”
St. James looked like contenders on Thursday at the AUM Baseball Complex, defeating Alabama Christian 10-1 in the first game of a doubleheader, then winning the nightcap 10-4 that serves as a tiebreaker should the two teams finish the season tied in the area standings.
Prattville Christian’s extra-inning victory over Montgomery Academy on Thursday left the Panthers atop the standings at 3-0, followed by St. James at 3-1, Alabama Christian at 1-3 and Montgomery Academy at 0-3.
Still, the first few innings of Thursday’s game might have resembled the Eagles’ 8-7 win on Wednesday, at least from the St. James’ prospective. St. James took an early 3-0 lead as KJ Jackson drove in a pair of runs in the first inning and scored in the third inning on a bases-loaded walk, but the Trojans stranded nine base runners in the first four innings, leaving the door open for an ACA rally.
“We’ve been getting runners in scoring position and just could not get that key hit with two outs to score the runs,” Lucky said. “That’s why we’ve had some struggles, earlier in the season, of not scoring runs. Tonight, they did a good job. They finally woke up and started hitting the baseball like they’re capable of.”
But the Eagles couldn’t find any offense as three St. James’ pitchers combined to toss a one-hitter. William Milner had that hit, a single to left in the fourth inning that eventually turned into a run when Milner scored on a sacrifice fly. The other 10 ACA base runners were the result of walks as the Eagles failed to bring the same mindset to the ballpark on Thursday.
“I thought we played well (on Wednesday),” ACA coach Manuel Guice said. “Then we came back today … and it was one of those days where everything seemed really hard for us.”
The Trojans broke open the game with seven runs in the sixth, using an RBI single by Carter Carroll and a two-run triple by Tabor Offord. As a steady rain fell for 30 minutes, the Trojans scored three of their runs on wild pitches and another runner reached base on an error.
“It got away from us in the sixth inning,” Guice said. “They put the seven-spot on us and that’s when the bottom fell out and we happened to be on defense when the rain came. We sort of struggled through that inning and never really got it back.”
In the second game, the Trojans scored five runs in the second and two pitchers combined to hold ACA to four hits, with three of those coming in a two-run fourth.
Offord went 5 for 9 with a pair of triples, a double, three runs scored and five RBIs in the doubleheader. Clint Shores went 4 for 8 with a pair of runs scored and an RBI and Jackson went 3 for 6 with four runs scored and a pair of RBIs. The Trojans (15-8) host Trinity on Monday.
Milner went 2 for 6 and scored a pair of runs to lead ACA (7-14), which plays host to LAMP on Monday.