Albany earns state baseball appearance
The Lion baseball team pulled together an epic comeback effort to defeat New Deal in the Region I final series, advancing for the second time in three seasons to the state baseball tournament in Round Rock.
Even as this edition of the News is being printed, Albany (23-7) is squaring off against defending Class 2A champions Big Sandy (34-4) in the semifinal round of the tournament that was set for 7:00 p.m. Wednesday at Dell Diamond.
The winner of the game will meet the winner of the Valley Mills vs. Linden-Kildare semifinal game in the Class 2A championship at 12:00 p.m. at Dell Diamond on Thursday.
This is the third consecutive trip to the state tournament for Big Sandy, who lost to Muenster, 6-2, in the final in 2017, only to beat Muenster in a rematch for the trophy last year, 13-3.
The Lions also advanced to the tournament in 2017, falling in the first round to Muenster, 1-0, in eight innings.
“Big Sandy has eight seniors who have been to the state tournament the last two years, and they have been ranked number one pretty much all season,” Albany coach David Fairchild said. “They are very good, but we certainly have a shot if we can play like we did against New Deal last Friday.”
The Lions lost the first game of the best-of-three series in the Region I final to New Deal, 8-0. But Albany rallied to win both games on Friday, 7-6, 4-3.
“We didn’t come out ready to play in the first game on Thursday,” the coach said. “Ben (West) didn’t have his best game on the mound, but their pitcher did a good job throwing us stuff we couldn’t hit.”
West took the loss, allowing four hits and five runs over three innings, while striking out two.
Jackson Chapman came in for five outs, followed by Ryan Hill for the last two and a third frames. Chapman gave up one hit for no runs and struck out two, while Hill allowed three runs on two hits and two walks. He struck out five.
Chapman also got the lone hit for the Lions.
As gloomy as things appeared on Thursday, it was a very different and determined Lion team that went to work on Friay.
“The kids really stepped up in the next two games,” Fair-child said. “They came in with a lot of energy and fought hard.”
Cade Neve pitched five and a third innings in the second game, allowing six runs on six hits. He struck out six and walked four.
“We hit the ball much better the second day, and Jackson Chapman made a huge defensive play with a diving catch for a double play,” the coach said. “Jackson was the key to our defense through the whole series.”
The Lions took the momentum from the second game into the tie-breaker.
Josh Dyer finished out the second game with the last five outs, and Fair-child started him on the mound for the third game.
“Josh was still hot from the second game and got us off to a good start,” the coach said. “It ended up being a team effort with a total of four guys pitching.”
The coach said that West and Dyer were the leading hitters in the third game, but it was Chapman’s sacrifice fly to center that won the game with bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning.
“Jackson hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to get us to Austin,” the coach said. “I loved the way these kids fought in both games on Friday. It was the first time since the beginning of the season that we were in that big of a hole, and the guys responded to the challenge just like I thought they would.”
Game 1
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
NEW Deal 0 0 5 0 0 3 0 8/7/0
Albany 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0/1/1
INDIVIDUAL STATS
J Chapman 1 for 3, 1 sgl
Game 2
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
ALBANY 2 0 4 0 0 1 0 7/7/2
New Deal 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 6/6/3
INDIVIDUAL STATS
B Kayga 1 for 2, 1 sgl, 1 run
B West 0 for 3, 2 runs
C Neve 1 for 4, 1 dbl, 2 RBIs
J Chapman 1 for 4, 1 sgl, 3 RBIs, 1 run
BJ Morris 1 for 4, 1 sgl, 1 RBI, 1 run
L Ivy 1 for 2, 1 sgl, 1 run
J Dyer 1 for 3, 1 tpl, 1 RBI, 1 run
R Hill 1 for 1, 1 sgl
Game 3
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
NEW Deal 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 3/5/3
Albany 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 4/8/1
INDIVIDUAL STATS
C Fairchild 1 for 3, 1 sgl
B West 2 for 4, 2 sgls, 1 run
C Neve 1 for 2, 1 dbl, 2 runs
J Chapman 0 for 3, 1 RBI
BJ Morris 1 for 4, 1 sgl, 1 run
J Dyer 3 for 3, 2 sgls, 1 dbl, 1 RBI
R Hill 0 for 1, 1 RBI
