Spartans lose lead late in high-scoring game
HOOVER – In a back-and-forth affair on Monday at Hoover High School, Hoover bested Mountain Brook, 9-8, in a game that featured three lead changes, two of them coming in the final two innings.
“When we worry about competing and not about other things, we’re pretty good,” Hoover head coach Adam Moseley said. “If we stop competing and we start worrying about things we can’t control, that’s when we’re not very good.”
After a Sam Jeffcoat run-scoring single gave Mountain Brook an early lead, Hoover scored five runs over the first two innings, and made it look like the contest may not be in doubt for long.
The Bucs scored two of their three runs in the first on sacrifice flies and got an RBI triple from Tyler Williams in the second inning. Williams would score on a passed ball with Sonny DiChiara at the plate to give Hoover a 5-1 advantage.
But the Spartans rallied, and strung some hits together in the fourth inning. Walker McCraney got the ball rolling with a single, followed by one from Wilson Higgins. Tyler Imig drove both of them home with a double. Chandler Cox made it consecutive RBI doubles when he stroked a ball to right field to score Imig and cut the deficit to 5-4. Cox came around to score on Jeb Brown’s hit to tie the contest.
“Hitting’s contagious,” said Mountain Brook head coach Lee Gann. “We ended up having six quality at-bats in that one inning and it produced four runs. It was a big inning for us. It turned the game around and I think our kids really felt like we had a great chance to win the game at that point.”
Hoover regained the lead in the bottom half of the fourth, as Garrett Farquhar reached via walk and a pitch hit Nolan Hammonds to put a pair of runners aboard. DiChiara followed with a double to score Farquhar to make the score 6-5, but the Spartans threw behind DiChiara, who was caught off the bag and tagged out, essentially ending the rally.
The Bucs gifted Mountain Brook the tying run in the fifth, as Higgins scored from second on an errant pickoff throw towards the runner at first.
The Spartans put together another rally in the sixth inning, and took the lead. Joey Keating and Sam Jeffcoat singled to put a pair of runners on base. With Clay Stearns at the plate, Jeffcoat stole second and a few pitches later, Keating scored on a wild pitch. Stearns singled home Jeffcoat to give Mountain Brook the 8-6 edge.
The game got away from Mountain Brook in the bottom of the sixth, as Hammonds tripled in Williams, and Hammonds scored on a wild pitch four pitches later, tying the game at 8-all.
The Bucs took their final lead when CJ Gilliland, the courtesy runner for DiChiara, scored as the Spartans threw the ball away trying to turn a double play.
“We didn’t give up, never quit in any half inning, offensively or defensively or on the mound. We just came up a little short. We made a few mistakes that were critical, but you know what, they were mistakes with our guys playing to win instead of playing not to lose,” Gann said.
Josh Kissinger entered the game with one out in the sixth after Mountain Brook had taken its lead, and he slammed the door shut. Kissinger struck out the final two hitters in the sixth to squelch the threat and mowed the Spartans down in order in the seventh to pick up the win.
“We’ve told him all year you’re going to have your shot in a big spot,” Moseley said. “He’s the kind of kid who just always comes everyday to work and he gets rewarded with being in a big spot and closes it down. It’s really neat. The game was ready to spin out of control against us and he came in and got those two strikeouts and he was very good in the seventh.”
Both teams now prepare to return to area action, as Hoover begins a Class 7A, Area 5 series at Vestavia Hills on Tuesday. Mountain Brook hosts Area 6 foe Huffman on Friday.
"I felt like we got better in a lot of areas," Gann said. "Still got a lot of room to improve but I felt like we got better and I felt like we grew up some as a team tonight."