Down Five Runs Early, Berkeley Baseball Advances To The Div. II State baseball Finals With 8-6 Win Over West Florence
Berkeley players storming the field after their hard fought win!
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Moncks Corner — “So many athletes along the way, whatever it is you aspire to do, will tell you it can’t be done. But all it takes is imagination. YOU DREAM. YOU PLAN. YOU REACH. There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with HARD WORK, with BELIEF, with CONFIDENCE and TRUST in yourself, and those around you, there are no limits.” ~ Michael Phelps - the Most Dedicated Athlete In Olympic history with 28 gold medals
Down 6-1 to the West Florence Knights, and needing a win to punch their ticket to the Div. II AAAAA baseball gold medal round, the aforementioned words of Phelps were depicted by an over-achieving band of “dirt bag” baseball players, known as the Berkeley Stags, who rallied with great defense, two home runs, and solid relief pitching to earn an 8-6 win.
Berkeley now awaits the winner between Indian Land and Catawba Ridge, from the upper state, and the Stags will host game one of the best-of-three series on Tuesday May, 27.
When the game was over, a cheering mob of Stag baseball fans, who no doubt went home happy, stood and cheered the Stag team for several minutes, as the players went on a victory tour around Jim Bradley Field. These over-achievers first ran full-speed to the student section, set up behind the right field fence, and they were greeted by their class mates like battle tested soldiers returning from World War II.
Then this merry-band of celebrating dirt bags broke full speed to their beloved adult fans, in the stands behind home plate. As the cheers reached a feverish pitch, the players they were admiring, for their grit and determination, gripped the fence as they moved along, as the emotions of the accomplishment had over-come players, coaches, and fans alike. It was certainly a proud moment in the history of Stag baseball.
The rally contained all the elements of the greatest sport ever played by man-kind. Stag out-fielders, led by the leaping ability of Henry Rivers, literally prevented three potential home runs, from leaving the park, with great catches, from the very extremes of the warning tracks. West Florence head coach, Josh Brown, noted after the game that had this game been played on his field all three well-hit balls would have been home runs on the Knights shorter field.
After Berkely starting pitcher Keller Wofford had early struggles, relief pitchers, Hunter Morris, hard-throwing quarterback Henry Rivers, and Gavin Barb, teamed up to keep the Knights off the board, after they had scored all six of their runs in the top of the second inning.
Berkeley’s win was centered around home runs by Deon Hogue and Bryson Heath who accounted for five RBI’s in the come-back win with these two homers.
After the game, head coach Landy Cox, put the moment in perspective. “I have been a baseball coach for over 20 years, and this is 100 per cent the biggest group of over-achievers that I have ever had the honor of coaching,” he said from the field. “I have never seen a group of kids who believed in what we were doing more then this group.
“I’ve have been blessed to coach some incredible teams but you never know when you come to the park which player is going to step up and be that big-time player for the team,” said Coach Cox. “We have had some stars here, and with this team it has been a different player, or players, stepping up, and helping us find a way to win from game-to-game. This is a group of players who are very close and they are all playing with a lot confidence right now.”
True to the words of Phelps, it was junior relief pitcher Gavin Barb, who assumed the role of closer in the top of the 7th inning with the game on the line. After he gave up a walk to the first batter, he retired the next three batters on a fly ball to center, a ground-out and then to the delight of his mother “Tiffany”, and all Stag fans, he struck-out the final batter and that is when the dam of celebration broke open on Jim Bradley Field.
“Talk about come-backs,” said Coach Cox. “Gavin was our two-hitter at the start of the season, and one of our top pitchers, and then he went through a little lull,” said Coach Cox. “He had not been able to find himself back in the line-up. However, we preached to him, and the team, every day that someone who had not done it in a while might have an opportunity to be that guy.
“Tonight, it was Gavin Barb and I thought he went into the game just as calm as he could be and he got the outs and earned a save for us in a pressure situation,” said Coach Cox. “In the game of baseball, you have to be ready for the moment and Gavin came is and he embraced the challenge very well.”
After the game, West Florence head coach Josh Brown shared some thoughts with the HSSR. “They got up early and then we had a big inning in the second inning to take a lead, and it was a back-and-forth game a lot,” said Coach Brown. “We just could not tack on any more runs after that. They made some outstanding plays on defense to kill some of our potential rallies.
“We hit so many balls to the warning track in this game, and at our place, I know of at least three of those balls would have been home runs at our place, so that alone is disappointing,” said Coach Brown ”We just didn’t quite get them out of the park and this was the difference in the game. They are a great ball team and we just ended up a little bit short tonight.”
Coach Brown saluted the play of his three starting seniors. “Our three big senior contributors are Cooper Coleman, who has signed with Florence Darlington Tech, Ryan Coscetti is headed to Francis Marion, and Matthew Brown has also been a key senior. These guys have all been on the varsity since they were freshman or sophomores and we will miss them greatly.”
West Florence finished the season 22-6.
Host Berkeley was down 6-1, to West Florence, after two innings in game two of the Lower State Div. II AAAAA championship series, but the Stags rallied for an 8-6 win, using two home runs that produced five runs to clinch the win.
The Stags had won game one at West Florence two days earlier, 8-0. The Stags will begin the gold medal round at home on Tuesday May, 27 against the upper state winner between Indian Land and Catawba Ridge who are playing a third and deciding game on Saturday to decide which team plays the Stags.
Berkeley took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when lead-off batter Hudson Clark walked and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Henry Rivers. Ryan Richardson’s successful bunt single moved Clark to third. Then Devon Hogue executed a sacrifice bunt that allowed Clark to score and give the Stags an early 1-0 lead.
In the top of the second WF scored all of their six runs sending 10 batters to the plate. Josh Haney led off with a single and then Fischer Hartman drew a walk to start the inning. Newt Hinson then loaded the bases when his bunt was mis-handled on an error. Haney scored on the error to tie the game 1-1.
Avery Weaver then singled in Hartman to make it 2-1. Ryan Coscetti drew a walk and while he was batting a pick-off throw went past the first baseman allowing Hinson to score from third to make it a 3-1 Knight’s lead. Designated hitter Matthew Brown then singled to score Weaver to make the score 4-1. Carson Haynes stepped up and ripped a double to score Coscetti to make it a 5-1 lead. WF scored their final and sixth run of the game on a sacrifice fly by Chase Anderson that scored Brown from third.
Berkeley sent 8 batters to the plate in the bottom of the third inning when they scored four runs to cut the deficit to 6-5. Lead-off batter Braylend Booker reached on hit by batter and two batters later a double by Rivers placed runners on second and third. Then a Balk scored Booker to make the score 6-2. Ryan Richardson then reached safely on an error scoring Rivers on the play making it a 6-3 game. Then Houge stepped up and hit a two-run homer to cut the deficit to 6-5.
In the bottom of the 5th Berkeley scored three wins to break the game open. Rivers reached on a one-out infield error. He scored on a single by Easton Little to tie the game at 6-6. Then Bryson Heath followed up with a two- run homer to put the Stags up 8-6 and that score held up for the rest of the game.
Berkeley has now won 9 straight games since April, 21.
