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Baseball News:
Clay-Chalkville 8, Etowah 7
Posted by Birmingham News on April 16, 2008
1:08 a.m.
The host Cougars (23-10) came up with a run in the bottom of the seventh to
earn the win. Jesse Carroll, Rob Crawford and Kyle Reeves all went 2-for-4,
while Carroll also homered.
Reeves heeds
coach's words
Clay-Chalkville coach Brandon Johnson pulled aside Kyle Reeves Tuesday
night against Oxford.
It was the ninth inning. There were two outs. Both dugouts had already
reached deep into the bullpens for pitching. It was a 5-5 game between two
teams that had combined to win 17 of their last 18 games.
It was time for maximum stress. But when Johnson whispered into Reeves
ear, he found the words that meant maximum chill. That meant enough to spark
a 6-5 Clay-Chalkville win in Class 6A Area 13 play. "I said, `Look, if
I had to pick a guy on our team to be up here right now, it would be you.'
And he goes up and does it," Johnson said. "He gets down 0-2 in the count
and never folds. He smokes a ball into right field and we all go home.
That's the kind of kid he is."
It was a moment most coaches find with players they trust come crunch
time. Reeves slashed his bat through the strike zone and turned a fastball
into a walk-off single to make Clay a winner. "Never had a bigger hit in my
life," Reeves said. The Cougars (18-6, 4-0) earned their eighth-straight win
by coming back from a 5-1 deficit against Oxford ace Trey Pilkington.
This victory had a soundtrack. It was the wicked pings that turned into
pinball hits after careening from the mound after bouncing off the limbs of
a pitcher from each team. It sounded like a woodpecker's knock after each
ping. The night ended with Reeves whooping all the way down the first-base
line. He jumped in the air and came back with both spikes on the bag. "I was
screaming my lungs out when I left the batter's box," he said. "You just
don't know how good that felt."
The victory was made possible by a stubborn Cougar effort. Sophomore
designated hitter Jordan Simmons blasted a grand slam to deep center in the
bottom of the sixth to tie the contest. Clay-Chalkville only had two hits
off Pilkington up to that point. "This game here defines our team,"
Clay-Chalkville senior Jesse Carroll said. "It shows the heart of our team.
Coach always says it's easy to roll along when things are going good. It's
when things get tough where we see what kind of team we have. We showed so
much character tonight."
Carroll pitched three innings of shutout relief to earn his seventh win.
He wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam with one out in the seventh inning. "I
knew when Jordan hit that slam there was no way we were going to lose this
game," he said. Oxford slugger Saxon Butler hit his 13th homer of the season
in a five-run fifth inning.
Clay-Chalkville 14, Springville 0:
Pitcher Adam Windsor wasn't perfect Saturday, but he was close. Windsor
struck out 14 of the 18 batters he faced to pitch a five-inning no-hitter to
lead host Clay-Chalkville (17-6) over Springville in high school baseball.
Windsor, who walked just two batters while one other reached on an error,
allowed a fly ball to right for the second out of the game, then took care
of the rest of the outs himself.
Rob Crawford led the offensive attack for Clay with a homer, triple and five
RBIs. Jesse Carroll had two hits and drove in two runs.
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