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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

VINCENT – After the North Sand Mountain Bison stormed back with a big late offensive rally to win game one of their Class 2A second-round series, the Vincent Yellow Jackets found themselves with their backs against the wall.

Entering the state tournament as the prohibitive favorite and the No. 1 team in the media rankings, Vincent needed an equally emphatic response to take the final two games of the series and keep their pursuit of a long-awaited state title alive.

The Jackets got just that, blasting the Bison for 14 runs in three innings in game two to force a decisive game three on Saturday, April 26 at Vincent Middle High School.

There, after each of their last two seasons ended in game three losses, Vincent wrote a new chapter of its own with a 5-2 win to seal the series victory and advance to the quarterfinals.

“All credit to them, that’s a really good team,” Vincent coach Timothy Junkins said about North Sand Mountain. “We knew that coming in and that they weren’t intimidated. They competed. I think it definitely made us better us having to compete every single ending on this kind of do-or-die situation.”

In game one, North Sand Mountain overcame an early 2-0 deficit by emerging from an hourlong rain delay with nine runs over the course of three innings to take a 9-3 lead.

The Jackets attempted a rally in the bottom of the seventh but could only get two of the six runs they needed to overcome the deficit.

However, that late rally proved to be a harbinger of things to come as Vincent’s offense erupted with Aiden Poe on the mound as support.

The Jackets scored seven runs in the first inning starting with a run off an error and got RBI singles from Grayson Gulde and Keller Finn as part of the rally.

Landon Archer took the lead to 8-0 in the top of the second before Vincent burst the game even more wide open in the third.

After getting a pair of free baserunners to start the inning, Casen Fields and Aiden Gasaway hit RBI singles on back-to-back pitches for the 10-0 lead. Vincent then capitalized on a wild pitch, passed ball and a pair of errors to score four more runs.

After a pitching change for the Jackets, four walks put North Sand Mountain’s first run of the game across, but Vincent finished off the 14-1 win shortly after.

Poe finished with five strikeouts in 1.2 perfect innings ahead of taking the mound the next day for the full seven innings.

He settled in immediately, striking out three of the four batters he faced in the top of the second after benefitting from a double play in the top of the first.

However, everything changed in the top of the fourth. The Jackets allowed three-straight singles to put the Bison on top 1-0 as the pressure from both the sticky situation and opposing fans built up even more.

Poe steeled in and got a first-pitch fly out and back-to-back strikeouts to escape with just the one run of damage.

Vincent went right to work with a lead-off single from Gasaway, but a double play flipped the momentum back in North Sand Mountain’s favor. Gulde kept the inning alive with a single and reached second in a passed ball, setting up Landon Archer to single to short.

The Bison shortstop tried to make the throw out, but Archer was safe, and the visitors immediately turned to the play at the plate. Gulde swam past the tag attempt to reach safely and tie the game at 1-1 ahead of an inning-ending pick-off.

Poe got a strikeout to start the fifth, but a single and a double left him in another tight hole. That situation forced Calvin Johnson to get the easy out at first while allowing a go-ahead run to cross home plate, but it paid off as Poe struck out the next batter on four pitches to end the frame.

Now trailing 2-1 going into the bottom of the fifth, Ethan McElrath singled and reached second on a Keller Finn sacrifice bunt. After a Johnson walk, Lane Mims sent a ground ball to third, but the North Sand Mountain third baseman misplayed the routine scoop.

The error allowed Cayden Carroll to score while rounding past the third baseman and tie the game up at 2-2.

Two batters later, another miscue at third let Gasaway load up the bases, but Vincent would have to wait until the sixth to capitalize.

After a quick one-two-three inning from Poe and a lead-off ground out in the bottom of the frame, Archer got aboard with a single. McElrath got in an 0-2 hole, but a pickoff attempt went awry and sent Archer to third off the error.

From there, McElrath tested the third-base line again, and another error plated the go-ahead run. That forced a pitching change, but Finn quickly capitalized on a 1-2 pitch by ripping a double down the right field line to score McElrath and make it a 4-2 lead.

While the Jackets went down to two outs on the next batter, an error kept the inning alive and set up back-to-back walks, the latter of which was with the bases loaded to put the hosts up 5-2.

Poe then rolled through the top of the seventh and struck out the side to seal the three-run win and the game three victory.

Poe racked up 12 strikeouts over seven innings while working around two runs, six hits and one walk. Archer was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run, and Gasaway, McElrath, Finn and Mims each batted in a run in the win.

After game three, Junkins admitted that the lengthy delay in game one threw them off their rhythm and forced them to go off-script. However, he praised his senior leaders in Poe, Gulde, Fields, Gasaway, McElrath and Finn for doing what they always do–fight back no matter the odds.

“We got a lot of seniors who have played a lot of baseball for that name on that chest and they love this place,” Junkins said. “They love competing. I’ve been using examples of all the time just how they hate to lose. And I always know I can fall back on them. They can fall back on each other. They are going to give 100 percent every single game. Are they going to be perfect every game? Probably not, but they’re going to compete their tails off and I’m going to ride within the most situations.”

Vincent will now advance to face the Sumiton Christian Eagles on Wednesday, April 30 at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on the road at Sumiton Christian School in the Class 2A quarterfinals.

Junkins believes the test they just survived in the second round will have them ready to take on the defending state champions.

“The fact that we had to scrap every single inning against good pitching, I think that only makes us better no matter what,” Junkins said. Falling back on our senior leaders, those guys really leading the way, it’s just going to carry us into round three, we got a tough test on the road, going to Sumiton Christian, one of the top teams in the state, defending state champs. So I feel good about it. I know they feel good about it and we’re going to see what next week holds.”