Gallery by Tina Laney
Coal City – Shady Spring senior Tyler Reed knew he had a job to do Wednesday night at Joseph H. Goddard Field in Coal City.
With the winning run standing 90 feet away in a tie ballgame against county rival Independence, Reed knew he had to make contact.
First pitch swinging, the Shady Spring catcher ripped a single to right-center field scoring Colten Tate with the eventual game-winner earning a 7-6 victory for the Tigers.
Leading up to the dramatic swing, it had not been Reed’s best night of the year.
After a pair of strikeouts earlier, Reed was lifted for pinch hitter Carter Pack in the sixth before being re-entered to run for Pack whose single scored two big runs.
“I was just thinking I cannot (strikeout) again. It is a tie ballgame and I have to make something happen. I had to put the ball in play and hope for an error or something,” Reed said. “All I was thinking was put the bat on the ball. I went up there and got me a nice hit and really got the dugout going. I was pretty excited.”
At a time where Reed could have hung his head after being lifted, he instead chose to show some senior leadership when his number was called in the seventh inning.
“That kid works more than anybody I know. He always wants to go to The Yard and hit. He always focuses on the situational stuff and we talk about it often,” Shady Spring head coach Jordan Meadows said. “He has been a dawg behind the plate. He had a couple of goofy swings on curve-balls for strikeouts, so we pinch hit for him. When it came down to it, Tyler Reed was the man of the hour and got the big hit.”
On paper the game appeared to mean more to the Patriots since the Tigers had already wrapped up the No. 1 seed for sectional play in a little over a week.
Looking to build on its case for the No. 2 seed, Independence took a quick 3-0 lead in the opening frame. The early advantage came as a direct result of two Shady Spring errors.
A single from James Williams in the second inning made it a 4-0 game before Aiden Calvert’s sacrifice fly put Shady on the board in the fourth inning.
The home team answered quickly with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning, however.
Clay Basham, who had four hits in four trips Wednesday, singled to lead off the inning and scored on a double from J.D. Monroe. Monroe crossed the dish on a solid single from Cole Cunningham which gave the Patriots a 6-1 lead.
“The outcome feels great, but early on we were making bonehead mistakes and we had no energy at all,” Meadows said. “I told the guys that we had to find a way to chip away. We had to put some guys on the base paths and stuff like that. Once we started rolling, we started battling.”
The first chisels to the deficit were applied in the fifth inning when Adam Richmond and Parker Brown each drove in a run, cutting the lead to 6-3.
Shady then evened things in the sixth.
Calvert walked to open the inning before Cash McCall was hit by a pitch giving Shady runners at first and second with no outs.
“Early in the game were swinging at bad pitches, first pitch curveballs and stuff like that. Once we got settled in we started piecing it up. We stole a lot of bases and made stuff happen,” Meadows said. “You could tell the kids were juiced in the sixth and seventh inning. One they got the momentum back they were rolling and we worked our way back in the score column.”
Pack’s pinch-hit single scored Calvert and when the ball got away from the left fielder, McCall scored and Carter moved up to second.
With Reed back in to run for Carter, Shady tied the game when an error allowed Reed to advance to third and later score the tying run on a single from Cam Manns.
“It was a little frustrating tonight. I thought we had them. They didn’t start off good and they got down a little bit. But, I knew that whenever you play a good team like that, you can’t ever go to sleep,” Independence head coach Scott Cuthbert said. “We went to sleep there in couple of innings. You just can’t keep making mistakes to get back to the top of the order. Early when they scored a run or two we were able to get it back. Then late we couldn’t do that.”
With the golden opportunity in front of him, Reed went to the plate with one thing in mind.
“I like first-pitch fastballs. I don’t like to let the pitchers get ahead of me. I want to jump on them first,” Reed said. “It feels great. I always want to beat Indy. Anytime we play them I want to win.”
A big key to the win was the work done by Jacob Meadows. Known for his hitting prowess at the top of the lineup, Meadows came on to shut down the Patriots over the the final three frames.
“Jake has never really been a pitcher growing up. He just throws strikes and pitches to contact,” Meadows said about his younger brother. “He pitched against Oak Hill right before spring break and pitched during spring break because we had some pitching issues. He has only thrown about 15 innings this year, but he came in and really battled.”
Shady Spring hosts Liberty Friday before traveling to Logan Saturday. Independence hosts Greater Beckley Christian Thursday.
