By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Trying to make something happen, Tipton-Rosemark Academy Head Coach Jacob Cole called for a stolen base at second in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Cole was trying to get runner in scoring position with two outs April 6 with his ace pitcher Zach Seward at home plate. The Fayette Academy Vikings were ready and threw out the runner at second to keep the game scoreless in the pitchers’ duel.
As the players exit the field preparing for the final inning of this Division II-A West Regional showdown Cole shouted to Seward, “It’s OK. It’s OK. You lead off. I want you leading off.”
Cole’s confidence in Seward and the TRA defense was validated with a pair of strikeouts. The table was set for Seward to come back up to the plate with bat. Facing a 3-balls, 2-strikes count, Seward’s Fayette Academy counterpart Bo Culver fired in a pitch. Seward was ready and drove the ball deep over the left field wall for the walk-off 1-0 victory.
“We couldn’t find barrels all night,” Seward acknowledged. “When we did hit ball, many didn’t drop. The guy on the mound for them was pretty good. He’s there No. 1. This was my first time ever hitting a walk off home run.”
Prior to Seward’s heroic moment, Culver held the Rebels to two hits. Those leadoff doubles didn’t produce any runs.
“We were waiting the whole game,” Cole acknowledged. “I kept telling them, ‘Stop waiting on somebody to do something.’ Both teams were waiting on something good to happen instead of making something good happen. And we waited and waited and he made something happen.”
Meanwhile Seward held Fayette Academy to three hits while striking out 10 Vikings.
“Seward pitched his butt off for us,” Cole said. “We had a game plan coming into it – jack attacking the zone, going right after them. He did that. He was able to throw multiple pitches for strikes. Big pitches when we needed him to. He came up clutch.”
The previous night TRA ace hurler Patrick Green came up clutch with 11 strikeouts in a win over the same Vikings. The rematch was scoreless for six and half innings.
Cole said to the naked eye, Seward’s home run will be the play of the game. But from his coaching prospective it was the final pitch of the sixth inning that made the difference.
“It goes back to him being able to throw multiple pitches for strikes,” he noted. “It’s 3-2 (count), he throws a curveball I called. I have 100 percent confidence he’s going to throw it for a strike. That kid is looking fastball. And here comes the curveball.”
Cole said being able to throw a curveball for an out during a pitchers’ duel illustrates every small piece of the game is crucial.
“The little things, just doing the little things,” he said. “When we get beat, I don’t know if we’ve been outhitted in a game we’ve lose. It’s little things. These guys haven’t played enough ball yet to understand the importance of those things.
“Sometimes moments gets big for them and the game speeds up,” Cole concluded. “And we do somethings, not necessarily errors or mental errors. It’s just playing and doing those little things.”
