Saturday afternoon Shady Spring hosted Nicholas County with plenty of sectional seeding implications on the line.
The game also had an intense postseason feel.
Aided by a seven-run sixth inning and some key Shady miscues, the Grizzlies handed the Tigers its first Region 3 setback of the season, 10-7.
“It was a great game. Cole (Brown) pitched a great game as he usually does. The bats woke up today was the biggest thing,” Nicholas County head coach D.J. Martin said. “(Shady Spring starter) Sam (Barnett) pitched fantastic. Kind of the same story on their side as it was on ours. Errors get you in trouble. That is high school baseball. Whoever makes the least errors usually comes out on top.”
The Grizzlies were the first to stumble opening the door for the Tigers in the bottom of the second inning.
Brody Seabolt opened with a single, before back-to-back strikeouts from Brown was followed by a fly ball to right field. Nicholas County appeared to be out of the inning, but the ball could not be handled.
With just enough breeze to keep pushing the ball deeper into the right field corner, the ball was dropped allowing Shady to take a 1-0 lead.
The damage worsened for the visitors when an ensuing walk was followed by a single from Jalon Bailey scoring two more runs.
“We have to make routine plays. That is what got us down in the hole early, but honestly, we have been making those this year,” Martin said. “Probably due to the guys feeling some pressure in this game. You expect some of that to happen.”
Shady Spring returned the favor in the fourth inning when a throw to first base was not caught, handing the Grizzlies a base runner. Brown then stepped in and helped his own cause by launching a shot over the fence inside the left field foul pole for two-run homer.
The game went completely sideways for the Tigers in the sixth when an error to open the frame stung the home team once again.
Things snowballed from there.
With a runner aboard, Ira Mylott cleared the left field fence for the second two-run homer of the game and a 4-3 lead.
“We know they hit to contact whether it is Cam Manns, Sam Barnett or Jacob (Meadows) on the mound for us. They hit for contact,” Shady Spring head coach Jordan Meadows said. “What hurt us was we made an error and another error. Right after that, they hit a home run. We didn’t execute. The one bad inning started with an error. Today was not our day.”
Caleb Jarvis doubled to follow Mylott and Coleton Hellums walked to put two Grizzlies on base. Following a wild pitch, Braden Brown singled for a 5-3 advantage.
A pair of strikeouts, sandwiched around an intentional walk loaded the bases, but also put Shady on the cusp of escaping serious damage.
Serious damage came off of the bat of Caleb Jarvis who singled home two runs. When the throw home got away, another run scored for a 8-3 lead.
Jarvis made it to third base in the confusion before he scored on a wild pitch.
Shady refused to go quietly, scoring four runs in the bottom inning on two bases loaded walks, a wild pitch and an RBI single from Carter Pack.
However, the home squad could get no closer.
“We chipped away and chipped away, but we ended up falling short. They are a good team and very experienced, but we are not in that spot,” Meadows said. “We have them again on Monday, so we will see what happens.”
Nicholas added a run in the seventh, but one of the brightest spots of the game for Martin was his team weathering the trouble and coming back to win.
“In the regular season last year, we would have laid down. They would not have been able to put the error behind them and move on,” Martin said. “That just comes with growth. We found a way to win and this is a huge one for us.”
Martin talked about his senior battery holding the deficit in check prior to the comeback.
“This whole team feeds off Cole and (catcher) Grayson (Kesterson). They are two of the best captains I have ever had,” Martin said. “They lead by example and you can tell when Cole is on the mound, everybody is relaxed.”
After some struggles at the plate due to erratic play brought on by bad weather, Nicholas County had 12 hits in the win, including four for extra bases.
“It helps that we are finally getting to play,” Martin said. “This is game four this week to help get some consistency at the plate. We are starting to take off.”
With two weeks left in the regular season for baseball, the win by Nicholas makes the sectional seeding battle extremely tight.
“It is good to get this experience, but the only thing that matters is May,” Meadows said. “They might be the No. 1 seed now, but you have to play the games and get 21 outs somehow. It’s whoever makes the fewest mistakes. Like (Independence head coach) Scotty (Cuthbert) said the other night, it is a toss up right now. Anybody can win on any given night.”
Mylott and Brown stayed hot in game two against Bluefield. Mylott collected three hits and drove in four runs, while Brown had three RBI in the 13-3 win over the Beavers in five innings.
Burns had two hits and Lucas Milam had a double and knocked in one run.
“We have to take it one game at a time. You never know. I have seen some crazy stuff. We just need to stay fired up with the same intensity as this game,” Martin said after the Shady Spring win. “I know coach Meadows will have them ready to go. They are thinking the same thing. If they want to host, they need to get that one. It is a huge one Monday.”
Shady Spring also beat Bluefield in the third game of the day behind four hits and five RBI from Brody Seabolt. The Tigers won 16-6 in six innings.
Meadows had two hits and an RBI, while Aiden Calvert had one hit and two RBI. Carter Pack collected two hits and Gavin Davis had two RBI.