Vincent a win away from state title with dominant game one victory over Pike Liberal Arts
Published 8:10 pm Monday, May 12, 2025
Vincent got within one win of clinching its first baseball state championship since 1985 with a commanding shutout of Pike Liberal Arts thanks to six shutout innings from Landon Archer and a key mid-game rally. (Reporter Photos/Andrew Simonson)
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor
OXFORD – The heavens opened up with a downpour of rain in the top of the sixth with two outs, but that wasn’t the first thing to pour on the Pike Liberal Arts Patriots.
That would be the Vincent Yellow Jackets’ bats, which were responsible for back-to-back three-run innings in the fourth and fifth frames. The rallies paved the way for a dominant 7-0 win on Monday, May 12 at Oxford’s Choccolocco Park in Game 1 of the Class 2A championship series.
With the win, Vincent needs to win just one game of the next two to win its first state championship since 1985. The series will resume on Tuesday, May 13 at 10 a.m. at Jacksonville State University.
“It feels really good,” Vincent coach Timothy Junkins said. “We were here two years ago, we couldn’t get the one win, got down early. I guess you could say that’s kind of off our backs at this point. But like I told them, right after the game, to my knowledge, two state champions were crowned last year after games two and three. They were lost the first game and came back and won two and three, so we still got a job to do. So they’re going to have to come back out, early morning game tomorrow and be ready to put up another fight.”
Aiden Gasaway reached base off a fielder’s choice play in the top of the first and put himself in scoring position for Aiden Poe by advancing off a passed ball. Two pitches later, Poe ripped a ball down to right field for an RBI single, scoring Gasaway and opening up a 1-0 lead.
Landon Archer then took the mound and had a fairly easy time in his first two innings, giving up just one base runner in each frame. He ended both innings on strikeouts to preserve the shutout.
He got a bit more of a test in the bottom of the third. The Patriots ripped a one-out single up the gap that the middle infield had trouble fielding, and a five-pitch walk on the next at-bat put two on with one out.
However, Calvin Johnson came up with a catch for a first-pitch line out before handling a grounder to get Archer out of the inning.
Pike Lib then left the door open for the Jackets to bust the game open in the top of the fourth. Grayson Gulde reached first after the catcher dropped strike three, and two batters later, Ethan McElrath drew a four-pitch walk.
That left two on for Keller Finn, who ripped a no-doubt hit to left to score Gulde, doubling up the lead to 2-0 as he celebrated down the first base line to the delight of the traveling fans.
Finn quickly reached second on a passed ball, putting runners on second and third. Johnson then stepped up to the plate and sent a ball to the pitcher, but a disastrous overthrow to first plated two more runs for the 4-0 lead.
The Jackets carried over their momentum into the bottom of the fourth, catching a lead-off base runner trying to steal second before turning an inning-ending double play.
The first two Vincent batters of the fifth got out, but back-to-back walks from Poe and Guld got their team in business. After a passed ball put both runners in scoring position, Archer provided his own run support with a double to left, scoring both JT Fields and Gulde for the 6-0 lead.
Ethan McElrath followed that up with an RBI double of his own to score another run and increase the lead to 7-0.
The Jackets then turned a quick one-two-three bottom of the fifth inning with back-to-back Archer strikeouts to start and a heads-up pop-out play in foul territory by Lane Mims.
However, with one on and two outs in the top of the sixth, a nearby lightning strike halted the game ahead of the incoming downpour. Both teams waited an hour and 20 minutes before resuming the game with a first-pitch out to end the half-inning.
Despite having over an hour for his arm to get cold, Archer went right to Junkins and said he wanted to finish out the game. He didn’t get his wish as he exited after the sixth inning, but he worked around a pair of one-out singles to finish his outing.
Archer finished the game with six shutout innings, striking out six batters against five hits and three walks.
Gasaway then came in and worked a quick bottom of the seventh to seal the shutout victory and put Vincent a win away from the state title.
Poe finished 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI double while Johnson also went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Archer had a team-high two RBI.
After the game, Archer credited his teammates for having his back on defense and making the difference in a quality start for him.
“I feel like my team playing behind me is a big role in how I pitch, and every time something doesn’t go my way, somebody’s there to pick me up and tell me this is going to be OK, and they got me next time,” Archer said.
Now, the focus shifts to winning game two on Tuesday to close out a long-awaited state title for Vincent’s seniors. It’s the same senior class that were sophomores in 2023 when the Jackets lost in game three to Ariton, and Junkins says that experience gives him confidence in his leaders.
“There are five starters on that team that are still on this team,” Junkins said. “We’ve added some seniors who have played a lot of baseball, and every time we talk, that seems to come up because I lean on those seniors for their maturity, their leadership. And they’re not going to let us play tight. They’re not going to let us get emotional because they’ve been here. They’ve played a lot of baseball. They’ve recorded a lot of wins. And I think that senior leadership, that senior group, just their competitiveness and their leadership is going to keep us playing the way we are.”
One of those seniors from that team, Casen Fields, said it’s all about keeping doing the little things that pave the way to victory.
“I talked to the guys before the game, just knowing that if we do the simple things, the little things right that, nine times out of 10, we come out on top,” Fields said. “So just keeping that in the back of our mind, just doing the simple things all the time is going to get us the win.”
More Vincent High Sports
-
-
-
Polls
Loading ...
