Gallery by Tina Laney
Thursday night at Joseph H. Goddard Field, Shady Spring came to town in desperate need of a win.
Suffering through five straight losses, the Tigers were hoping some “jersey magic” could snap the exasperating losing skid.
Sporting new black uniforms for the first time in West Virginia, the Tigers found the winning formula by scoring later to beat county rival Independence 5-3.
“We had lost five in a row and struggling really bad. I told the guys, we were bringing out these black jerseys. We have to buy in,” Shady Spring head coach Jordan Meadows said. “I knew with (starting pitcher) Jake (Meadows) throwing strikes and if we could make the routine plays, we would keep the runs down. We did.”
The two teams traded runs in the second inning, but over the first two frames, the Tigers missed on solid opportunities to build an early lead.
A nice play at second base by freshman Micah Cuthbert turned into a double play to end the first inning threat.
After scoring a run in the second inning, Shady had runners at second and third with one out when a missed squeeze bunt attempt resulted in another twin killing.
“I told the guys after school when we had some guys hitting in the cage and some guys fielding ground balls, if I call them on the bunt, we have to get the bunt down,” Meadows said. “We haven’t been seeing the ball very well and I am just trying to make something happen. It could be on me just trying to overdo some things. I have to take the blame there.”
With the score tied 1-1, Cole Cunningham launched a two-run homer over the right field fence to give the Patriots a 3-1 lead.
Shady started its comeback in the fifth with a little help from the home team.
An Independence error on a fly ball from Carter Pack to start the frame came back to haunt the Patriots two batters later. Jalon Bailey sacrificed Pack to second and Jake Meadows singled him home to cut the deficit to 3-2.
In the top of the sixth, things got a little heated on a drive by Mookie Cox towards the left-field foul pole into the setting sun.
With the ball curving towards foul ground, the blast was ruled fair and the solo shot tied the game at 3-3.
Playing for the first time in the Shady-Indy rivalry, Cox successfully created one of the more controversial moments between the long-time rivals.
“All I saw was the sun. I didn’t even see the ball come off the bat. I just knew I hit it,” Cox said. In knew it was 2-3 and I knew I had to do something and step up. I stepped up and hit a home run to tie the game up. Then the boys got it back.”
Independence head coach Scott Cuthbert had a good look from the third base dugout and totally disagreed with the call.
“It was foul. I am just going to come out and say it. It was a foul ball and he missed the call,” Cuthbert said. “It is what it is. The bottom line is we didn’t hit the ball very good today. We gave them two runs late and that ended up being the difference in the ball game.”
The final two runs for Shady Spring came in the top of the seventh and both runs came without the aid of a base hit.
Bailey was the catalyst again working a leadoff walk. Meadows then dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Bailey up to second base.
After the count went to three balls and no strikes on Aiden Calvert, Cuthbert called for an intentional walk. The situation quickly worsened for Independence when Sam Barnett walked to load the bases still with just one out.
Shady’s advantage dimmed on a strikeout before a passed ball change the complexion of the game.
Bailey raced home ahead of the throw back to the pitcher covering home plate. When the ball evaded the pitcher, Calvert never stopped running, scoring the second run of the sequence.
“I told Jalon that this was a situation where we can’t have the bases loaded and (three left on). I told him we had to make something happen,” Meadows said. “He is an athlete. He plays football and plays basketball. He is 100 percent hustle and that is what he did.”
Barnett came on and retired the side coaxing a fly ball out and two ground ball outs to secure the win.
“I told the guys the home run didn’t win the ball game, but it may have given us some momentum,” Meadows said. “Technically we still win the ball game 4-3 (without the home run).”
While the chatter will long be on the controversial home run, Independence did itself no favors with four errors, six walks and a hit batsman.
“We can complain and all of that stuff, but it still comes down to who makes the plays and who doesn’t make the plays. We made a couple of errors tonight and I don’t know if they scored an earned run tonight,” Cuthbert said. “We have moved people around out there in the outfield. We are young and every night I have three or freshman on the field. It is still a learning process. It is the first time most of these kids have been in an environment like that. Hopefully next time we can respond a little better.”
After the struggles of the last five games, naturally Meadows was pleased to be on the winning side of things Thursday.
“Credit to these guys for buying in, they battled out there,” Meadows said. “I am super proud of these guys because the last five games have been a struggle. Right now we are 3-0 in the section and that is all that matters.”
The two rivals will meet again next week with each sectional game becoming more and more important in regards to postseason seeding.
“We split with Nicholas and they beat PikeView. We have two weeks left in the season before it comes to a vote. To me, right now you could draw it out of a hat,” Cuthbert said. “Our region is a coin flip as to who could win the region. We get a chance at (Shady) next week and we will go from there. Nobody has won anything yet.”