Photos by Tina Laney
The old adage says errors will kill you in the postseason.
Thursday night Bluefield survived a near death experience to become the outlier.
Powered by two separate three-run home runs from senior Kerry Collins, the Beavers danced around their numerous mistakes to defeat Shady Spring 10-7 in nine innings.
The win evens the regional championship series between the two rivals and forces a winner-take-all Game 3 scheduled to be played Friday at noon at Bowen Field. The Game 3 winner will earn a trip to the state baseball tournament at Appalachian Power Park, June 2-4.
“It is like my assistant coach told me, baseball usually isn’t that forgiving,” Bluefield head coach Jimmy Redmond said. “The errors tonight really hurt, but we were forgiven somehow. Somebody was watching over us. We lived to see another day.”
A lead-off single from Bryson Redmond opened the ninth and a fielding error two batters later put two aboard for Collins who had already hit a three-run bomb in the fifth inning.
The only question when Collins pulled the trigger was if the ball was high enough to clear the fence.
“The pitch was actually a curveball. It was hung at my chest. That is a bad place to leave it,” Collins said. “It barely snuck out, but I hit it on a line.”
The Beavers were fortunate to make it to the ninth inning after dodging a serious scoring threat from the Tigers in the bottom of the eighth.
An error and two walks loaded the bases for Shady Spring with two outs before Davis Rockness snagged a sharp grounder at third. Rockness beat the runner to the bag for the force out that ended the threat.
Through all of the fielding struggles for Bluefield, Rockness was steady at third with several key plays to keep Shady from scoring.
“That is what we have to do. We can’t rely on strikeouts. Shady has a good two-strike hitting team, so we are going to have to make plays. A couple was all we needed tonight,” Redmond said.
Both teams scored twice in the opening inning before some Bluefield miscues in the third inning gave Shady a 4-2 lead.
The Tigers returned the favor in the fifth when Kamron Gore reached on an error and took third when Bryson Redmond hit a two-out single.
Bluefield tied the game on a wild pitch and an RBI single from Hunter Harmon which brought Collins to the dish with two aboard.
“He had been pounding first pitch fastballs on me. I had been getting behind and fouling them off,” Collins said. “My plan was to look for a first pitch fastball. It was up a little and exactly where I wanted it. In 15 years I have never hit two home runs in a game. It put me in double digits (10) for the season, so I am really excited about that. It couldn’t have been in better game either.”
A double from Adam Richmond in the fifth led to a Shady run, but entering the seventh inning, the Tigers needed a pair of runs just to send the game to extra innings.
Two errors and a missed opportunity to turn a double play allowed the Tigers to score the needed runs to tie the game.
After losing the lead, Redmond felt he had to put some fire back into his team going to extra innings.
“It seemed like after we made a few errors that we were dragging and I kind of had to get everybody up. This is why you play. It was a 7-7 regional game and they were dragging,” Redmond said. “When I get fired up, I get really fired up. I thought at the time it was needed. It was good to see these guys not quit.”
After tying the game in the seventh Wednesday night and pulling off the comeback win in extra innings, it was not meant to be for the Tigers Thursday.
“That was a great baseball game. The kids battled,” Shady Spring head coach Jordan Meadows said. “We were down 7-4 after the first home run and we found a way to tie the game and go to extras. Then we had the bases loaded with a chance to win the game and it just didn’t fall our way. That is baseball and credit to them for tonight. We will just come back tomorrow and try to win and go to states.”
Game 3 is slated for noon Friday at Bowen Field in Bluefield, weather permitting. With both teams strapped for pitching, it could be another wild one.
“Tonight, it was a boxing match all night. To come out of here with the win is huge mentally for us,” Collins said. “I think it probably will be a slugfest Friday. The biggest thing when it comes down to it in a slugfest is to make plays when they don’t get hits. That is what we will have to work on. Then being at home will definitely help.”