Williamsburg Academy’s quest for back-to-back State Championships is in trouble, after the Stallions gave away four runs in the first inning against Calhoun Academy on Friday.
The top seeded Stallions fell to second seed Calhoun Academy 5-4 in the second round of the double-elimination SCISA 2A playoffs. The Stallions will face Thomas Heyward Academy in an elimination game Monday.
“We had some good at-bats that gave us a chance late,” Williamsburg Academy head coach Tyler Boyd said. “We didn’t play very good ball, especially in that first inning.”
In the first inning, the Stallions defense was sloppy, leading to four Cavalier runs.
The first batter of the game for Calhoun Academy reached on an error, and after a walk and a popped bunt that landed between three fielders, the bases were loaded with no outs. Then after serval wild pitches and passed balls, the bases were quickly emptied.
The game was delayed nearly two hours after a transformer that controls the electricity blew a fuse. Boyd didn’t want to blame the first inning on that, but said that the team can only stay so excited for so long without knowing when the game would start.
“It's baseball, it happens,” Boyd said of the miscues. “It can happen to anybody.”
The 4-0 deficit would remain until the fourth inning, in large part to Joe Kellahan who despite the big deficit, allowed just two hits in his 5 1/3 innings.
“He did great,” Boyd said. “It's just that first inning was rough.”
In the fourth Will McCutchen was hit by a pitch, and he was brought home by Bradley Muldrow on a double. Muldrow then scored, thanks to some heads-up base running and a call then went Williamsburg Academy’s way. Suddenly, the deficit was halved with three innings to play.
“We've been in the hole before and we've seemed to always fight back,” Boyd said. “We’ve been fighting back all year.”
The Stallions kept chipping at the Cavalier lead, but could not find the timely hit to square the game. The Stallions ended up with just four hits and striking out 10 times.
“They were just trying to do a little too much,” Boyd said, adding that he thought their swings were a little “big.”
In the sixth, there was controversy over the pitch count of the Cavaliers’ star pitcher. Under SCISA rules, a pitcher can’t throw more than 105 pitches in a game, unless they are currently facing a batter, in which they are allowed to finish that hitter, With one out in the bottom of the inning, and trailing by one run, Williamsburg Academy had the Calhoun Academy pitcher at 105 pitches, but the Cavaliers only had him at 104. After discussion, the pitcher was allowed to face one more batter. It ended up being a crucial second out.
Calhoun Academy would grab what would be the winning run in the top of the seventh inning on a bloop hit to center field. In the bottom half of the frame, the Stallions would have the tying run at third and the winning run at second, but Greyson Moore’s line drive was caught by the Cavaliers’ shortstop ending the game.
The Stallions must now win three games in four days, and beat Calhoun Academy twice, to advance to the State Championship series. After coasting to a title last year, Boyd said the team will show its true colors with their backs against the wall.
“They realize what they got to do,” Boyd said of his team. “And I don't think they're going to let it get to them.
