Golden Tigers glide past Pleasant Grove in first round of AHSAA baseball playoffs
The Russellville High School varsity baseball team made quick work of Pleasant Grove in the opening round of the AHSAA playoffs Thursday night, run-ruling the Spartans 12-2 and 16-0 to advance in the tournament.
The Golden Tigers, ranked No. 4 in the final Alabama Sports Writers Association poll of the regular season, dominated Pleasant Grove in every aspect of the game, as the final scores suggest. Russellville put on a hitting clinic in the sweep and got a special performance on the mound in game two, extending the Golden Tigers’ season for at least another week.
“I said last week, you know, in the postseason it’s not really a beauty contest but, heck, tonight we made it a beauty contest,” Russellville head coach Jess Smith said. “I’m just really proud of this team. We’ve got another week together and I’m excited about it.”
The Golden Tigers went to work right away in game one, putting up four runs in the bottom of the first inning after a three up, three down top half. Two leadoff walks put Russellville in scoring position quickly, and an error allowed senior Daniel Askew to score the game’s first run. Back-to-back RBI singles from Michael Scofield and Brodie Vandiver made it 3-0 and then Elliott Green scored on a wild pitch to extend the lead before the inning came to a close.
A sacrifice bunt by Vandiver scored Brandt Cummings for Russellville’s single run in the third before the Golden Tigers put up a massive seven-run fourth inning. Russellville opened the at-bat with four straight singles, with hits by Askew and senior Devin Green scratching three runners across. Cayden Johns, who got the start on the mound for the Golden Tigers, helped himself out and took one for the team with the bases loaded—that made it 9-2. Russellville’s final three runs of the game came in the next at-bat when an Eli Boutwell single to left field cleared the bases.
Ty Engelthaler relieved Johns in the top of the fifth and shut the Spartans down with two groundouts and a strikeout to end the game.
Though Russellville finished game one with nine hits and was able to trigger the mercy rule with a big fourth inning, Smith felt his team’s performance, overall, was lacking a little something.
“To be honest, I don’t feel like we played to the standard that we want to play in game one,” Smith said. “I thought it was kind of a lackadaisical approach. It’s great, you know, winning in big fashion, but in postseason baseball it’s not really about what you do, it’s how you do it.”
“My message to (the team) between games was from here on out, whoever we play in the playoffs is a nameless and faceless opponent,” he said. “‘Your focus is on you and executing to our standard in the game that we play.’”
The Golden Tigers clearly got the message. Russellville put together two four-run innings in the third and fourth before doubling the advantage with an eight-run fifth inning. The hosts tagged the Spartans with 12 total hits in game two and, as Smith pointed out, the timing couldn’t be better for Russellville’s bats to start heating up again.
“Some guys that had kind of been going cold with the sticks got going again,” Smith said. “Neyland (Baker) with two big-time doubles, Brandt (Cummings) had two hits again…Johns had another three-hit day, and Michael (Scofield) had a two-hit day. Some of these guys that had cooled off here recently got back hot and that was awesome to see.”
Russellville’s bats were loud in game two, but the even bigger story was how quiet Pleasant Groves’ were. With Brandt Cummings on the mound, the Spartan bats weren’t just quiet, they were mute. The senior right-hander tossed a gem—a five-inning no-hitter in which he struck out 12 of the 16 batters he faced. Issuing no walks, Cummings’ lone mistake was hitting a Pleasant Grove batter to start the fifth.
“Brandt has gotten better and better on the mound for us in every one of his most recent appearances. A lot of people don't realize, but he has had a no hitter going through at least 4 innings in his last three appearances on the mound,” Smith said. “It has certainly caught our coaching staff’s attention. He is arguably one of our best velocity guys and has one of the better off speed pitches on our staff with his breaking ball. He's always had the talent. What's made him progress, in my opinion, is him learning ‘how to pitch’ and not just throw.”
“He has done a really good job of getting ahead in the count against opposing hitters, and even when he is behind, he does a great job of working the count back to neutral or even in his favor. He has learned how to change speeds and keep hitters off balance,” Smith added. “I feel like this year has been characterized by a lot of guys performing in different ways in big spots. Brandt has been a top performer at the plate for us this season and has gotten better each week defensively, and now he is piecing together his best outings on the mound at the most important time of the year.”
Sweeping Pleasant Grove, the Golden Tigers advance to play Area 10 champ Leeds, who knocked out No. 8 Boaz in three games. Russellville will travel to Leeds for the series.
“Leeds is a really good program who beat a really good Boaz team, a top 10 team in 5A. In my opinion, Leeds is an extremely good baseball team, and an extremely underrated baseball team that I don’t think has gotten the recognition they deserve,” Smith said. “I know that they have several returning players with playoff experience, so we know they’re going to be a challenge. Somehow we always seem to find our way to playing Leeds in the playoffs.”
“The task is tall, but with that being said, if you’re not excited about it then your wood’s probably a little wet. This is what you work for, for these kinds of opportunities,” he added.
Scouting Leeds to the extent possible, Smith said he and his staff have identified some of the challenges awaiting the Golden Tigers when they take on the Greenwave this weekend.
“Leeds has two really good, tough lefties that we’re going to see on the mound. Both are different and do different things well, so a lot of our week will be spent preparing our guys for what they’ll see from them,” Smith said. “They have five or more guys that can really hurt you at the plate and a good supporting cast around them, as well, so we’ll be talking to our pitchers, going over scouting reports, trying to familiarize them with those guys and how we want to approach them.”
“At this time of the year there’s a lot of talk and time spent on scouting other teams and going to games and trying to learn as much as you can about your opponents, but, honestly, we’re really trying to motivate and challenge our guys to execute our plan,” he added. “If you can’t execute then the scouting report isn’t worth anything. Execution is just as important, if not more important, than preparing for whatever the other team is doing, so we’re really challenging our team and focusing on executing what we want to do.”
The Golden Tigers have a week’s layoff before the series against the Greenwave begins. During the regular season the Golden Tigers rarely went more than two or three days without playing a game, so this week-long wait to play the next contest presents a change of pace in preparation.
“To combat not playing earlier in the week we scrimmage. We kind of split up Monday and Tuesday so they’re shorter scrimmages and that way we can work on some specific things we want to get done. But it also presents our guys with some live opportunities,” Smith said. “Then we’ll start dialing in on a scouting report and repping what you’re going to see and creating an atmosphere at practice that will hopefully help our guys not to be overwhelmed at someone else’s place.”
“You’ve got to be firing on all cylinders this time of year, so it’s up to us coaches to have these guys ready to go. We’re going to take ownership of that and I’m going to take ownership as the leader of this program to set the pace for that. Have no doubt, you know these guys are all in now,” he added.
This is Jess Smith’s second postseason appearance as head coach of the Golden Tigers. One of the valuable lessons Smith said he learned from Russellville’s postseason appearance last season is to try to prepare the team for a hostile road environment. While he said the coaching staff will do its best to ready the team for a rowdy opposing atmosphere, Smith hopes Golden Tiger fans will travel, wherever round two is played, in support of the team. Having friendly voices behind them, Smith said, goes a long way.
“I know I’m asking a lot, but we’d love for their help on the road next week…” Smith said. “We would love to have the greatest fan base in the state behind us so that (the environment is) not such an overwhelming advantage for the home team.”
“We really appreciate the fans showing up for us. It really means a lot,” he added. “I’m thankful for them coming out on a Thursday night and staying out late with us, and we hope that we’ll see them on the road with us next week.”