Right on target: Archer’s walk-off double gives Vincent first state baseball title since 1985
Published 1:56 pm Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Vincent ended 40 years of waiting and avenged 2023’s heartbreak to win the Class 2A state baseball championship over Pike Liberal Arts as sophomore Landon Archer’s walk-off single secured the historic title. (Reporter Photos/Alec Etheredge)
(For the Reporter/Cole Pevey & Shelby County Schools)
(For the Reporter/Josh Boutwell)
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor
JACKSONVILLE – As Aiden Poe walked off the mound in the middle of the seventh inning with the game tied 1-1, he did so knowing that he had once again given the Vincent Yellow Jackets a chance to win a state championship.
This time, however, the outcome was different.
After the Yellow Jackets fell short in game three of the Class 2A State Championship two years ago at Rudy Abbott Field at Jacksonville State University when Poe was a sophomore, they were determined on Tuesday, May 13 with a 1-0 series lead and a chance to walk off a state title in the bottom of the seventh.
Poe stepped to the plate determined for redemption and got the excitement started with a lead-off single up the middle to start the frame, and two batters later, sophomore Landon Archer stepped up with the game on the line.
Facing a 1-1 pitch with pinch runner Aiden Willis on second, he swung hard and dropped a fly ball into left field. Pinch runner Aiden Wills sprinted down to the hot corner, made a wide run around third and slid for home plate.
The throw took the Patriots catcher away from the plate, and Wills’ teammates mobbed him in celebration as 40 years of dreams and work were fulfilled in the Jackets’ first state baseball title since 1985 with a 2-1 win and a 2-0 series sweep.
“That’s been our motto this year is, ‘Compete,’” Vincent coach Timothy Junkins said. “And we compete every pitch, no matter the count, no matter the pitcher, no matter what size school we’re playing, and no matter of the situation, state championship or not, we’re going to compete, and that goes back to the seniors, and they have really bought into that, and they have pushed for it. They pull kids along, push kids along. It’s a great group, and they’re going to be missed. I love the fact that they get to go out on this high note because they really deserve it.”
More than just fulfilling past dreams though, it pointed to a possible future. With Archer’s RBI single after Poe’s lead-off hit securing the long-awaited championship, it was a true passing of the torch from one era of Vincent stars to the next.
“I’ve always told him, ‘I’m your biggest fan,’” Poe said of Archer. “I know sometimes he gets tough and it gets a little in his head, but I’ve always been there and told him I’m his biggest fan, and every time I see him smile, he goes out there and throws seven shutout or gets a walk-off hit. So, I like it when we’re having fun and, yeah, it is a passing of the torch because I see a lot of myself in him, and I see a lot of what I wish I had in him with his just raw athleticism.”
Neither team got any runs in the first four innings of game two, but there was still plenty of action during the opening half of the contest.
Aiden Poe worked around a pair of runners in the top of the first by turning a double play, catching the ball and throwing it to Casen Fields at short before Ethan McElrath caught it to end the inning.
Vincent struggled to get hits on Pike Lib early but got a pair of walks in the bottom of the first for one of its more prolific innings. The Jackets also drew a walk in the third but couldn’t get any of the runners home.
Poe got tested a couple of times with a lead-off double in the second and a one-out single in the top of the fourth, but he got out of both jams unscathed, first by his defense in the second and then by ringing up back-to-back batters to get to the middle of the fourth.
Vincent then had a golden opportunity to get on the board thanks to a lead-off walk and back-to-back hit batters. With one out on the board and a full count, Calvin Johnson took an inside pitch that was called strike three, and the Jackets grounded out to third on the next pitch to end the inning.
The Patriots immediately capitalized on the missed spot, getting a runner aboard on a one-out single after a low throw to first base. After a bunt moved the runner to second, Pike Lib tried the left side of the infield again and got a single. However, Vincent missed the catch at first and the opening run scored on the error.
Then, with one on and two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Grayson Gulde appeared to knock a double off the first base bag and down the line to score the tying run, but one of the umpires called a foul ball.
Despite the first-base umpire calling it fair, the umpires got together and called it foul after a lengthy review, leaving Junkins incensed and Casen Fields on third.
Gulde rallied to draw a walk after that, and Landon Archer followed that up with a walk of his own to load up the bases. However, a quick grounder to short got the force-out at second and ended the inning as Vincent left three runners stranded for the second-straight frame.
There was no doubt about fair or foul in the next inning when Johnson sent a one-out double down the left-field line. That set up a two-out single from Fields up the gap near short to score Johnson for the tying run, making the score 1-1 ahead of the end of the sixth.
Poe then capped off his day quickly, needing just eight pitches to get around four batters after throwing just six pitches in a one-two-three sixth.
Despite working through a knee injury that Archer confirmed postgame, Poe went the distance, allowing no earned runs and striking out four against one unearned run, five hits and a walk.
Poe then stepped to the plate and did his part in the comeback, getting on board before exiting his final high school game for pinch runner Willis. The junior then got into scoring position off a Gulde ground out, bringing Archer to the plate.
Archer then got on board to bring the winning run home and walk it off for the 2-1 win, exorcising any remaining demons from 2023’s shortcomings to win it two years later.
Archer’s heroics in game two, where he finished 1-for-2 with a walk and an RBI, combined with his six shutout innings on the mound in a 7-0 game one win gave him the MVP award.
He said that staying grounded and taking encouragement from teammates like Poe helped him lock in for the game-winning hit.
“Try not to be too big,” Archer said of his mentality in the seventh. “It’s a big moment, but you can’t be too big for the moment. I feel as if it wasn’t a good day for me at the plate, but coming in the dugout with my teammates, like I said yesterday, picking me up, always keeping me on a high pedestal and telling me it’s going to be alright, and I’ll get the next one. And I think that played a big role.”
For Poe, Gulde, Fields and the other seniors, it was a full-circle moment where they got to overcome their disappointment from their 2023 state championship loss to Ariton in a tiebreaking game three.
Poe said having to battle adversity there as well as their game-one challenge against Mars Hill Bible in the semifinals prepared them to play looser and freer at JSU this time around.
“We’ve been challenged two big times,” Poe said. “I can think about two years ago in the state championship, we hadn’t been on that stage before, and there’s probably only a handful of guys that weren’t on the field that year. And so, knowing what it looked like to play uptight and stressed in that moment, and then in the fourth round, we came out a little slow in the first game, and then we had to get back together and say the importance of having fun, just keeping each other up and staying composed. And then we went on to win those next two games and win these two here. So, we’ve got an experienced group that knows what it takes to get your composure and have a little fun.”
That fun-loving spirit has been a hallmark of the Jackets in 2025, from Poe’s Vanderbilt-inspired whistles in the dugout to messing with Junkins during postgame interviews in the playoffs and many more moments in between.
Another hallmark was with the seniors leading and a “state-or-bust” mentality, that helped the younger players like Archer, Johnson, Willis and Lane Mims overcome some early struggles they had as a team and get in position to finish the year 33-7 while earning and defending the No. 1 ranking in Class 2A.
“The underclassmen did a great job following the leadership that the seniors gave,” Gulde said. “I’m super proud of them. A lot of the attitude problems that we had at the beginning of the season (decreased) dramatically. It’s made a heck of a game changer. Calvin Johnson, Aiden Gasaway, all of them, like they just improved drastically and it’s shown on the field.
“It’s crazy what you can do when you’re out of your own head and you’re just loose and having fun.”
Including winning a state title.
More Vincent High Sports
-
-
-
Polls
Loading ...
