When it counted most, Houston Academy’s baseball team came up big in Thursday’s AHSAA Class 3A state championship games.
As a result, the Raiders captured the blue map first-place state trophy, earning a pair of 4-3 wins over the Gordo Green Wave at Jacksonville State’s Jim Case Stadium/Rudy Abbott Field to take the title after losing the opening game 2-1 on Wednesday.
In Thursday’s first game, Houston Academy scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to rally from a 3-1 deficit. In the final game, the Raiders scored a run in both the fifth and sixth inning to ease past a 3-2 deficit. The go-ahead run in both games scored off hit by pitches.
“We just pitched well enough, hit well enough and made enough plays (on defense),” Houston Academy head coach Tony Kirkland said of his team which finished the season with a 28-8 record. Gordo ended up 33-7.
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The outcome sent Kirkland riding out on a golden sunset. He confirmed after the game that he was retiring. He guided the Raiders the last 12 years, amassing a 237-128 record and two state titles. He also directed HA to a state crown in 2014.
“That is very lucky,” Kirkland said of going out as a winner. “I owe it to these guys.”
The state title was the third overall for HA baseball as the 1993 team, celebrating its 30th anniversary this week, also claimed a crown.
“It doesn’t feel real,” senior J.T. Pitchford, who had a stellar pitching performance in Thursday’s opening game. “It is kind of crazy. There are no words to describe it. I just can’t believe it.”
Freshman Wyatt Shelley, who went 6-for-11 at the plate in the series, added, “It is just so surreal. I never expected to be here at the start of the year to be honest.”
It took some late execution in Thursday’s first game to force the series to the third game.
While HA won the opener in the eighth, it potentially prevented a loss during the top of the sixth.
The Green Wave scored once for the game’s first run and had the bases loaded and nobody out. Pitchford, though, got a strikeout and a shortstop-to-second-to-first double play to escape the jam without any more damage.
“He got a little extra right there,” Kirkland said on Pitchford’s intensity and pitching velocity.
The game went to extra innings tied at 1 and Gordo scored twice in the top half to seize a 3-1 lead.
With just three outs left in their season, Houston Academy rallied to stay alive.
Hughes Dean singled up the middle to open the inning. Cam Dyer hit a bouncer to the shortstop, whose throw to second was wild, putting runners at first and third. Will Wells then executed a perfect bunt single to load the bases.
Adam Boyd followed with a two-run single to center to bring in two runs to tie the game at 3 all.
Gordo elected to intentionally walk Max Hawker to load the bases and set up a force out at the plate. However, Green Wave pitcher Austin Baines hit HA lead-off hitter Wade Shelley on a 3-2 pitch to force in Wells with the game-winning run.
“This bunch is a no-give up mentality,” Kirkland said of the comeback. “These guys have been fighters all year.”
Houston Academy had 12 hits in the win with Wyatt Shelley, Dyer, Wells and Boyd with two hits each. Boyd drove in three, also delivering a RBI single in the bottom of the sixth.
Wyatt Shelley was the winning pitcher, recording the final out in the top of the eighth after starter Pitchford ran into trouble and reached his pitch count.
Pitchford pitched 7 2/3 innings, striking out seven and allowing seven hits and three runs. He pitched a two-hit shutout with four strikeouts through the first five innings.
In Thursday’s second game, Gordo struck for two runs in the bottom of the first as Wyatt Shelley struggled with control, walking three.
Kirkland inserted senior Griffin McGee to the mound to replace Shelley. He provided stability, throwing six innings of three-hit ball and allowing only one run. He struck out and walked three.
McGee, who also had two hits and two runs batted in during the win, was named the tournament’s MVP, mostly for his pitching.
“Griffin has given us innings all year,” Kirkland said. “He has been just a reliable person. He has had his ups and downs in some games, but he is one you can count on.”
With McGee holding the Green Wave at bay, HA got enough offense going. In the second inning, Boyd, who finished the series 5-for-11 with a team-high four runs batted in, singled home Wells (double). An inning later, Dyer singled past the shortstop to score Pitchford to tie the game at 2-2.
McGee had his only trouble spot in the fourth as Gordo pushed a run across on a fielder’s choice to go up 3-2. The Green Wave had the bases loaded following a single, but McGee got a ground out to Boyd, the first baseman, to end the threat.
Gordo would have only two runners in the final three innings and McGee picked off one of those at first base.
The Raider offense immediately tied the game in the top of the fifth. Wyatt Shelley ripped a double to the left field and scored two batters later on a Dean single.
The Raiders forged ahead with a run in the top of the sixth. Boyd singled and McGee walked around two fly outs. After the walk, Gordo changed pitchers with Wyatt Shelley coming to the plate. However, new pitcher Brady Jones’ first pitch grazed Shelley on the left sleeve to load the bases. His second pitch grazed Pitchford for another hit by pitch to force in Boyd to give HA a 4-3 lead.
McGee allowed a one-out walk in the bottom of the sixth, but got a strikeout and then earned his pickoff to end the frame.
He retired the Green Wave in order in the seventh, which was highlighted by a great diving catch of a low liner by Dean, the second baseman ranging to his right.
The Raiders played flawless defense in the finale after struggling with two errors in both the first two series games.
“I can’t thank my defense enough throughout the whole season, especially today,” McGee said. “The whole team played defense well.”
McGee, Wyatt Shelley and Boyd had two hits in the title-clinching win.
Kirkland said he initially thought about retiring about the 2022 season, but came back as a favor to first-year headmaster Dr. Vincent Janney.
“The headmaster, Dr. Janney loves baseball and he talked to me and said, ‘Please stay one more year because this is my first year and I am trying to work things out’ and I said, ‘I will do that for you,’ because he has been good to me,” Kirkland said.
Turns out it lead to a pretty good story ending as the Raiders coach.
You couldn’t ask for anything more,” Kirkland said.
Kirkland spent 14 years at Houston Academy, also coaching girls basketball for several seasons in addition to baseball. That was after a 27-year career with Dothan Leisure Services, including 17 as park manager at Westgate Softball Complex.
Though the wins and state titles were nice accomplishments, Kirkland said it was the players that made his 12-year run as head coach memorable.
“The players themselves,” Kirkland said when asked what stood out most to him. “I have had some really good kids over the years. If you coach high school baseball, you are only as good as your players anyway. It is just like today – and we also won in 2014 – it was because we had good teams with good players.”
