HOUSTON — Austin Halford hit a solo home run to send the game into extra innings, and Scott Johnson executed a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the ninth Saturday to send the East Webster High School baseball team to a 4-3 victory against Mantachie in Game 2 of their best-of-three Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 2A North State playoff series.
“That was probably the most exciting baseball game I have been a part of since I have been coaching,” East Webster coach Wes Johnson said.
With the win, East Webster, which lost Game 1 6-2 on Friday, forced Game 3, which will be at 6 p.m. Monday at Mantachie. The winner of that series will move on to face Hamilton in the North State final. That best-of-three series begins Thursday.
East Webster (20-7) had two outs and two strikes on Halford in the bottom of the seventh before he lined a pitch just inside the left field foul pole 315 feet away for his third home run of the season.
Center fielder Terry Shaw came up with a defensive gem in the top of the ninth when he threw out his second runner of the game at home to keep the game tied.
The Wolverines, the No. 3 seed out of District 2, wasted no time in the bottom half of the inning manufacturing a run. Shaw singled to start the frame and then stole second on a fake bunt attempt Dylan Henry then laid down the sacrifice to push Shaw to third base.
With a 2-0 count, Johnson caught Mantachie off guard by dropping down a suicide squeeze bunt that enabled Shaw to score standing up.
Ty Hendrix also had a two-run home run for the Wolverines, who had seven hits.
Junior Codie Silver went the distance, walking none, striking out two, and scattering seven hits for the victory.
Silver”s effort came on the heels of a complete game by Hendrix on Friday in a 6-2 loss. East Webster allowed four runs in the first inning thanks to a couple of errors. From there, though, coach Johnson said his team hung with Mantachie and gained confidence to know it can compete with the District 1 champion.
“These guys aren”t going to quit,” Johnson said. “We have seven seniors who are not ready for the season to be over with. The season is going to come to an end sooner or later, but we talk all of the time about having kind of a reckless attitude and not getting uptight and just have fun. That”s kind of the attitude my team has, when they get in a pressure situation just go for it. I think that”s what Halford was doing when he hit that home run.”
Johnson is undecided on who he will start on the mound Monday, but he said he has plenty of options.
“I think the kids realize if we play like we can, we don”t make mistakes, and we don”t walk people that we have a real good chance to win,” Johnson said.
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