A road rout of West Point on Monday night righted the ship for the Russellville High School varsity baseball team who, after an 11-game winning streak, suffered consecutive defeats in its two games last week against James Clemens and Haleyville.
“How we are choosing to look at it is everyone needs humility, and we got humbled last week,” Russellville head coach Jess Smith said. “Anytime your guys can be in the situation ours have been in, winning a lot in the month of March, then dropping two in-a-row but then responding shows growth.”
“I think last week we played a little lackadaisical and (Monday) night we got after it, so that’s all I ask of (the players). Winning 11 in-a-row we’ve proved we’re capable of going on a streak, so the challenge is will Haleyville be our last loss. And did we learn why the last winning streak came to an end?” Smith added.
Russellville (20-9) smashed its area rival West Point 19-3, run-ruling the Warriors in six innings to take game one of the three-game series.
The Golden Tigers finished the game with 12 hits and were assisted by eight Warrior errors. Leadoff batter Daniel Askew finished the game with two hits, two runs, and a team-high three RBI. Catcher Michael Scofield was a perfect 3-for-3 at the dish and also drew two walks. After a scoreless first inning, Russellville scratched across three runs in the second inning, five in the third, a solo run in the fifth, and three more runs in the fifth. A massive seven-run sixth inning triggered the run-rule as Ty Engelthaler came in to pitch and went three up, three down in the bottom half of the inning.
“I think we put a lot of pressure on West Point to make plays. They had some unfortunate mistakes, but credit to our guys. We had double-digit hits again—12 hits from our guys,” Smith said. “
Cayden Johns started on the mound for the Golden Tigers. He pitched five innings, allowing just one earned run off six hits.
“Johns was able to get through five innings in under 75 pitches and only one earned run, which is huge,” Smith said. “That’s all you can ask from your game one starter.”
Consequently, and most importantly, the win secured Russellville a spot in the playoffs. With a positive result in the second game of the series, the Golden Tigers can achieve an even greater goal: another area title.
“Being the area champs gives you the opportunity to host the first round (of the playoffs), so that would certainly be awesome for us, and it is certainly our goal to win the championship,” Smith said.
That bid for the area title will not be without its challenges. One will be the weather. The series doubleheader is scheduled for Thursday, but Mother Nature may have other ideas. Should the doubleheader be moved, Smith said, that’s just a little more adversity the Golden Tigers will have to contend with.
“The weather and the elements we’re battling this week, I’m sure, are going to present some adversity,” he said. “We don’t know when we’re going to get to play. We’re posing it to our guys, you know, that these things happen. Can you stay focused and stay locked in through the work week?”
Whenever the final two games of the series ultimately are played, Smith is sure his team will be facing a West Point squad determined to give a better showing than what was seen on Monday night.
“Coach (Drew) Bryson, in my opinion, is one of the best 5A coaches in the state, so there is no doubt that they’re going to playing better than they did (Monday) night,” Smith said. “When we played Jasper they played a pretty bad game in game one and then turned around and played mistake free. We’re expecting the same thing. We can’t lose focus. We can’t lose sight of what our goal is. We can’t take anything for granted.”
“All (Monday’s) win means is securing a playoff spot, but our expectations and what we want to do, that’s not all we want. We’re motivating these guys to stay focused throughout this week,” he added. “Our focus going forward is can we continue to raise the bar of what our potential is.”
“We’re looking forward to the opportunity to compete for another area championship crown.”
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