The Russellville High School varsity baseball team had a big weekend in Arab, knocking off two ranked opponents and a playoff quarterfinalist from last season to extend its winning streak to 11 games.
The Golden Tigers, ranked No. 4 in the latest Alabama Sports Writers Association poll, are now 19-7 on the season.
Russellville started its weekend on Friday with a doubleheader against Sparkman and Piedmont. The Golden Tigers defeated the Senators, ranked No. 10 in class 7A, 10-7 before downing the Bulldogs, Class 3A’s top ranked team, 7-5. Russellville followed it up on Saturday with a 6-4 victory over Arab.
“I think this is the most proud I’ve ever been of this group of guys,” Russellville head coach Jess Smith said. “We definitely had our hands full this weekend in the three-game set…and our guys fought every inning of all three games, and that’s what makes me proudest.”
Against Sparkman, Russellville produced solo runs in the second and third innings before pulling away with a six-run fifth inning. Half of the Golden Tigers’ 12 hits came in the sixth—five singles after a double by Cayden Johns to lead off the inning.
However, it didn’t take long for an opposing response. The Senators answered with seven runs in the bottom half of the inning to quickly slash Russellville’s lead to one run, 8-7.
“We took our foot off the gas, and when you’re playing a really good team like Sparkman and you take your foot off the gas, things are going to happen and we saw that,” Smith said. “I think our guys learned, more than anything, no matter who the opponent is you have to stay locked in on winning every single pitch.”
The Golden Tigers received the message loud and clear, adding two premium insurance runs in the seventh thanks to an RBI walk by Brayden Entrekin and an RBI groundout that scored Elliott Green. Two errors to start the bottom half of the inning put Russellville’s lead, once again, in danger, but two strikeouts by Entrekin and a heads up play to catch a Sparkman base runner stealing got the Golden Tigers out of trouble and sealed the victory.
“I’m glad we got to experience that, and I’m glad that it didn’t come at the expense of a loss that our guys had to experience it,” Smith said. “I think it says a lot about our team that when all the momentum was in Sparkman’s favor, we were still able to respond there in the seventh inning, get two runs, and extend the lead.”
“It wasn’t enjoyable from the coaching staff’s point-of-view, but looking in the rear view, so to speak, I’m really glad that our team got to experience that and learn from it,” he added.
Offensively against Sparkman, designated hitter Neyland Baker led the team with three RBI while senior second baseman Daniel Askew and left fielder Elliott Green both had three hits. All three players received praise from Smith, but for Askew and Green not all of it was just for their performances over the weekend.
Askew, a mainstay at second base for the Golden Tigers, has batted leadoff in most of Russellville’s games this season, a spot in the lineup typically reserved for the batters with a high on-base percentage. For Askew, that leadoff spot hasn’t always been so certain. In fact, up until this season, Askew hardly stepped into the batter’s box at all.
“Last year in his junior season, we’d actually DH for Daniel. He played second base for us every day, but in almost every single one of those games we’d DH for him,” Smith said. “It speaks volumes to who Daniel is to be in that situation his junior season and then (this year) be one of our top offensive producers all season long—and doing it in the lead off spot, which is what’s most impressive.”
“You want your lead off guy to be your leader in quality at-bat percentage and he’s doing that. Not only is he doing that but he’s played great defensively and, most importantly, he’s taken a leadership role. He’s tried to lead this team and be as consistent with his work ethic, his effort, and his energy, day in and day out, from practice to games,” Smith added.
Green, like Askew, was lauded by Smith for his determination and effort to improve his game. However, Green’s rise to near lock in the Russellville lineup right now came from—well, please pardon the phrase—it came from left field. Unlike Askew, who had a spot at second base already locked down, Green came into the season with nothing guaranteed but a day in the dugout.
“Elliott really wasn’t in the hunt for a spot as a starter preseason,” Smith said. “And you know, in the first half of the season he was still a guy that was primarily used as a courtesy runner and would just get a few at-bats here and there.”
It was in a private meeting that Green had with Smith where Green’s determination to make a real impact on the team was revealed.
“He basically said ‘I want to be here and I want to play. It’s not just, I want to be a part of the team. I want to be a contributor and what do I need to do to do so?,’” Smith said, paraphrasing the conversation. “Coaching high school kids, not many have the maturity to request to sit down with their head coach and basically ask what they need to do to be a contributor versus, you know, sit down with their head coach and ask, ‘Why am I not playing?’ He never did that and he handled it with maturity.”
From that point forward Smith said Green’s progression, intent, and attention to detail in practice slowly but surely earned him more opportunities in games, and he’s taken advantage of them.
“The coaching staff and I watched him and thought it was about impossible not to give Elliott opportunities based off what he’s done in practice, and so you start giving him opportunities in games and all of a sudden you’ve got a guy who’s hitting over .400 for you,” he said. “It’s a special thing when something like that occurs, not just because of the performance of Elliott, but because of what it took to get here. I just want to make sure people know that that’s who Elliott Green is and we’re super proud of him, not only of his performance but of who he is.”
In Russellville's second game Friday, the Golden Tigers battled Piedmont to a 7-5 win. The Golden Tigers opened up the scoring in the third with a three-run inning highlighted by RBI singles from Cummings and Entrekin. A sacrifice fly by Johns scored Gunner Sappington for Russellville’s single run in the fourth to make it 4-2. The Golden Tigers then capped their scoring with a vital three runs in the sixth inning: another sacrifice fly, this one by Baker, made it 5-3 before an RBI single by Brodie Vandiver scored Askew and Green.
The Bulldogs knocked in two more runs belonging to starting pitcher Tripp Cleveland in the sixth when Sappington came in in relief mid-inning to close the game out, trimming Russellville’s lead to 7-5.
Piedmont threatened again in the bottom of the seventh with two leadoff singles, but Sappington responded, forcing a fly out, a strikeout, and a lineout to the shortstop to end the game.
Given the short turnaround following the Sparkman game, Smith said he was happy with how his team came out against 3A’s top-ranked team. The attitude the Golden Tigers took into the game had Smith confident in a positive result.
“The guys played tough as nails, and it was the first time this season I felt like when I was coaching our team that it didn’t really matter what was going to happen, that we were going to win that game,” he said. “I was extremely proud of how we played against Piedmont but most proud of the energy and toughness we played with.”
Russellville returned on Saturday to face hosts Arab, a fellow 5A playoff quarterfinal team from last season. The Golden Tigers started the game with a four-run first inning, highlighted by a two-run homer by Baker, before the Knights stymied the Russellville offense and tied the game up 4-4 in the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Eli Boutwell, after surrendering three earned runs in the third, was relieved by Baker, who pitched the next four and two-thirds innings, allowing one run.
The score held for the next three innings and forced the game into extra innings, a first for the Golden Tigers this season.
In the top of the eighth, a Baker RBI double scored Green for the go-ahead run before a Brodie Vandiver sacrifice fly knocked in Brennon Thorpe from third to make it 6-4. Baker, who accounted for half of Russellville’s runs against Arab, has been a consistent player for the Golden Tigers this season, Smith said, and deserves credit for his game against the Knights.
“Neyland is someone I feel like deserves a lot of attention for the weekend he had,” Smith said. “His offensive production against Arab ultimately helped us win that game. And it’s not only that but he came in in relief in a really, really tough situation and kept it 4-4.”
Ty Engelthaler, who came in to pitch after Baker’s outing, got credit for the win, striking out two batters and forcing a groundout for the final out of the game.
“We handed (Engelthaler) the ball…with a runner already in scoring position at third base with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning,” Smith said. “A young guy who hasn’t (always) played at Russellville, who hasn’t played in a lot of these situations before…comes in to pitch and makes an extremely athletic play to get us out of that jam.”
“We scratched two runs across in the eighth and then Ty was able to come in to shut that game out. It was a huge moment for him, our team, our bullpen going forward. It gives us as a team and a coaching staff confidence that we can put him in and get out of any situations. That’s got to go miles for him and his confidence, as well,” Smith added. “We’ve used Ty a ton out of the bullpen this season, but we think he’s an arm to keep an eye on with us for the next two seasons. We think he’s going to be really special.”
Heading into the weekend, before any of the games were played, Smith said the Golden Tigers were going to treat the three-game set like the postseason.
“Like a playoff series, we’re going to have that same mentality. We’re going to treat Saturday, no matter what the results are on Friday, like we’ve got to bounce back and win a game three,” he said last week.
In that sense, Smith got exactly what we wanted.
“You look at the first game and we get out to a lead and take our foot off the gas. They respond and now you’ve got a one-run game. That’s playoff baseball to a tee. We fought like heck to see who wins that game and we did. Now we’ve got 20 minutes to reset and play another,” Smith said. “Then we play No. 1 Piedmont, who is jumping at the bit to take you down and we know that going in. They’re going to give us everything they’ve got, and it was an absolute war between us, but we came out on top.”
“We were exhausted after those two games Friday, and I don’t like to make excuses for our guys, but I’ll even side with them after Friday night. We were exhausted. But we’ve still got to turn around and play a tough team like Arab the next morning, and I told them we were going to treat it like we split on Friday and this was a must-win game,” he added. “Did we play as clean as we wanted to? Absolutely not. But did we find a way to win? And, by the way, win in extras? This team did that. And if we approach it like a game three in the playoffs, we’re jumping through the roof with joy because we found a way to win and did it in extras.”
That toughness and mental fortitude exhibited by Russellville over the weekend exemplified the type of resiliency that Smith has been preaching, in public and private, his team needed to reach its full potential. Early in the season, Smith admits, there were doubts about whether this Golden Tiger team could do it, and the road to “get over the bar” in that regard was not easy. After this weekend, Smith said, if there are any more naysayers doubting the ceiling of this Russellville squad, those suspicions should be put to bed.
“This is the proudest I’ve been of this team, and it’s probably the proudest I’ve been since I’ve been the head coach at Russellville, just because of the toughness it required. If people knew the challenges I’ve tasked this team…it’s not been hunky-dory and all sunshine and rainbows this season. A lot of times at practices I’m asking for them to do more than they think they can give, and our coaching staff has been really consistent in challenging them,” Smith said. “Early on I think there were a lot of question marks. Could this team do something like they did this weekend? Could this team find a way to put itself in a position like teams of the past?”
“It’s just been battle after battle after war after war and our guys have stepped up to the task every time. I almost get emotional talking about it just because of what other people don’t see that goes into this. It’s not common for high school-aged kids to respond to the adversity like our team has,” he added. “My message to my team and to the public after this weekend is if there are any doubts that this team could be special, well we’ve proved that wrong. It’s just about staying humble and playing together and really enjoying every moment going forward.”
Commenting on this story has been disabled.
