Gallery by Tina Laney
Princeton – J.D. Meadows’ troubles with the curve were short-lived.
Striking out in his penultimate at-bat, the sophomore delivered a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning that scored Brody Combs and delivered the host Tigers of Princeton a 7-6 victory over Shady Spring Thursday at Hunnicutt Field.
Princeton struck out just four times but one of them came when Shady hurler Cal Culicerto got Meadows swinging in the bottom of the fifth. That ultimately cost the hosts a run with Combs stranded on third.
With a shot at redemption, Meadows didn’t miss, squeaking a grounder between the third baseman and short stop that quickly emptied the home side dugout.
“I was just looking for a deep ball or something I could put in play,” Meadows said. “Hopefully if I put it in the air Brody could tag up and score. I was looking for nothing crazy, just a base hit and won us the game. He threw me a curveball the first time I was up and I wasn’t ready for it. His arm angle – it was a good curveball. The second time, I was ready for it.”
For Shady it was a fitting ending to a game where the visiting Tigers booted the ball around all evening. They finished with six errors on the day with a dropped fly ball and errant throw from the outfield allowing Combs to reach third base with one out ahead of Meadows.
“I told (right fielder) Carter (Pack) the game wasn’t lost because of that missed fly ball,” Shady Spring head coach Jordan Meadows said. “We gave up four errors before that to give them six runs. These guys battled in the last inning and that’s the third game in a row we’ve made it into the seventh inning either tied or playing for the lead. We lost to James Monroe in extra innings, won on a passed ball with Greenbrier Eats and lose on a walk-off hit tonight. These kids are battling and it’s early.”
Meadows’ analysis was largely spot on. In the three different innings Princeton scored, it capitalized on four Shady errors. The other two came in a frame where the hosts stranded a pair in scoring position. But early in the season, Princeton’s approach put pressure on a Shady defense breaking in six new starters, two of which were playing for a basketball state championship five days ago.
But it was also a credit to Princeton which jumped on early pitches to stress Shady’s defense. The hosts were efficient enough at making contact that they didn’t strikeout until the fourth inning when they had already sent 18 batters to the plate.
“I think the approach at the plate is just keeping everything simplified, just not looking at doing too much,” Princeton head coach Brandon Dunford said. “Keeping these guy’s heads centered where they’re not trying to lift the ball but just trying to find a hole. We want them hitting good, hard line drives and not hesitating. What I told them today was have a good hitter’s mentality. It’s yes, yes, yes, yes until you see that it’s a ball. But I want aggressive hitting – good mechanical hitting. That’s what we looked at today.”
That approach was successful early and often for the hosts.
Noah Dunford helped lead the early charge when he reached on an error at second and later took second on a passed ball. Combs followed with one of his three hits and two RBIs, striking a double that drew first blood. Meadows added a double-dipper of his own to score Combs for a 2-0 advantage.
Shady struck back in the top of the third when Jacob Meadows, Aiden Calvert and Brody Seabolt all reached base with one out. Meadows scored on a wild pitch and a throwing error at short stop turned a potential inning-ending double play into two more runs from Calvert and Seabolt for a 3-2 Shady lead.
The advantage was short-lived.
Lucas Monaghan started the rally with a single to open the bottom of the third before Shady issued a walk to Deegan Walters. With one out Combs delivered an RBI single scoring Monaghan. Meadows, who finished with three hits and four RBIs on the day, drove in Walters and Combs with a two-run single. Kaden Davis, who took the mound in the top of the third, helped his own cause with a single that scored Meadows reestablishing Princeton’s lead at 6-3.
Shady chipped into the lead in the fifth when Jacob Meadows scored his second run of the night on an error but Princeton’s advantage held until the top of the seventh.
There Meadows reached on a single, scoring on a Calvert double. Sophomore Sam Barnett kept the rally alive with a single that scored Calvert but an eventual lineout stranded him at third.
The hosts, undeterred by the momentum shift, never gave Shady another crack.
“We had a good part of the order up,” Dunford said. “Our leadoff guy was a senior that came up. Put one down the line it was foul, but gave us a good at bat. Then our four-hole guy (Combs) came up and he’s been lights out all year, hitting the ball really well. And then our five-hole guy that came up to win the game, John David (Meadows) has been the guy really driving in the runs. So I knew I was in a good part of the lineup that was going to be aggressive and really put the bat head on the ball. So I knew we were in a good place. We just had to make sure they understood to go up there and have a little fun with it.”
Shady drops to 1-2 and will host Liberty Friday while Princeton moves to 3-4 and will travel to Independence.
SS: 003 010 2 – 6 7 6
P: 204 000 1 – 7 11 2
Pitching – P: B. Dalton – 2.1 IP, 2 ER, 3H, K. Davis 4.2 IP, 2 ER, 4 H; SS: M. Cox 3 IP, 2 ER, 6 H; C. Culicerto 3.1 IP, 0 ER, 4 H.
Batting – SS: J. Meadows 2-2 (2BB), A. Calvert 2-4 (2B, RBI), S. Barney 1-4 (RBI), K. Helmer 1-3; P: L. Monaghan 3-4, B. Combs 3-4 (2 RBI), J. Meadows 3-4 (2B, 4 RBIs), K. Davis 1-3, B. Dalton 1-2
