WEST POINT — There are so many pieces needed to have success in the playoffs.
While there was plenty of timely hitting and fielding in the Oak Hill Academy baseball team’s second come-from-behind series victory in a row in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AA last week, the Raiders also received two dominating pitching performances to help it win the North State title.
Chance Wilson and Drew Riley combined to allow only seven hits and one unearned run in 13 1/3 innings Friday to propel Oak Academy to 5-1 and 6-4 victories against Prairie View (La). The wins helped Oak Hill Academy (16-7) secure a spot against Silliman Institute in the Class AA championship series. Game 1 of the best-of-three series will be at 5 p.m. Tuesday in West Point.
Wilson, a junior right-hander, didn’t mess around in a complete-game six-hitter in Game 2. Wilson’s “smooth” delivery made an impact, as he walked two and struck out one, surrendering only an unearned run in the fourth
inning.
“The first game I had a lot of energy and I knew I had to come out (and pitch well because) we lost the first game Tuesday,” Wilson said. “We knew we had to come out today and get both games, and that’s what we came out and did as a team.”
Wilson’s performance came on the heels of an eight-inning victory in Game 3 against Winona Christian in the previous series. Wilson said last week that that effort boosted his confidence after he spent a good part of the season bothered by tendinitis in his arm.
Against Prairie View, Wilson said his curveball and fastball were working well and that he was able to locate both pitches to keep the Spartans off balance.
“If I go out and do my job, I have a lot of confidence my team will get the job done behind me on defense and that we will eventually get the bats around on offense and get the win,” Wilson said.
The big blow came in the fifth, when Riley Pierce’s three-run double gave the Raiders a 4-1 lead. An RBI single by Drake Riley in the sixth accounted for the final margin.
The victory set the stage for another winner-takes-all matchup. Oak Hill coach Marion Bratton opted to start right-hander Kaleb Darnell, who hadn’t pitched in several weeks due to an injury. Prairie View capitalized in the top of the first, using three hits, a walk, and an error to score four runs and seize the momentum.
Bratton then turned to Drew Riley to keep the Raiders in the game. Riley threw about 120 pitches in an eight-inning loss to Prairie View on Tuesday, so Bratton was reluctant to use the junior right-hander on short rest. He said the plan was to have him go four or five innings and then turn to Pierce.
But Riley messed up Bratton’s thinking with a gutty effort that included only one walk (he walked seven and struck out 10 Tuesday) and four strikeouts.
“The coaches told me to come in and I just did my thing,” Riley said. “(Coach Bratton) said he wasn’t going to let me throw this much, but I told him I wanted to keep throwing.”
Riley said he had something to prove Friday night after walks contributed to Prairie View’s victory in Game 1. He said his right arm felt fine after the game, which he admitted it usually does a day or two after his pitches. He isn’t sure if it is a
“special gift” to have an arm that is able to recover so quickly, but he said he tried to clear his mind so he didn’t have to think about trying to keep Prairie View scoreless. He said he first felt a little tired in the fifth, which just so happened to be when he committed a throwing error that nearly led to the Spartans scoring a fifth run. Another error nearly followed Riley’s overthrow, but Pierce’s throw from live ball territory next to the Prairie View dugout hit a Prairie View player and was called a dead ball. The umpires assembled and called the runner, who scored from third on the second overthrow, out.
Not only did Riley shake off the throwing error, but he said his glasses started to fog up as the game progressed, so he lowered them a little when he needed to to pick up the signs.
“I still fought back,” Riley said. “I still felt like we could win this, especially on our own turf.”
Riley slammed the door with a 1-2-3 seventh to send Oak Hill to the next round. None of the Raiders said after the game that they were tired of the team’s come-from-behind methods. They credited the team chemistry for helping it push through injuries and fight to the end in every game.
“Last week was the same situation. We lost the first game and we had to come back and win both games,” Wilson said. “We had to do the same thing tonight. We just kept our heads up and whatever we came across, we faced and got the job done.”
Riley summed it up best when he said, “I think we have the most heart. We came back three games in a row at home and won the game. If nobody believes in us now, I don’t know what to say because we have the biggest hearts out there and we just get the job done. We just never get down. Maybe some players get down, but we pick each other up. We do that throughout the game and, most of the times it comes with a victory.”
Bratton, whose team lost to Manchester Academy in the Class AA North State title series in 2012, said Riley’s velocity picked up in the final inning and he knew he wasn’t going to be denied. From clutch hitting to slick fielding — see the 1-6-3 double play the Raiders turned in the sixth in Game 3 — it’s easy to see why the Raiders are still alive and kicking.
“These guys have been together so much (through) football, basketball, and now baseball that if we can get to the middle innings, we have a chance,” Bratton said. “We seem in the fourth, fifth, or sixth innings — we have even come back and won a couple in the last inning because they’re scrappy. We’re not pretty. I fully expected us to load the bases in the top of the seventh because we do that.”
“Is it going to be easy? No. It gets harder at every level, but these guys seemed to have stepped up a long way since a month ago.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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