By Scott Nickerson
Elmore/Autauga News
After winning Game 1 against Spanish Fort in the best of 3, Class 6A Semi-Finals, the Stanhope Elmore Mustangs baseball team needed one win in the final two games to advance to the state championship game for the first time since 2006. In an epic and dramatic series finish, the Mustangs dropped two tantalizingly close games. In Game 2, the Mustangs and Toros were tied 9-9 in the bottom of the 7th inning with bases loaded and two outs. The Mustangs needed just one more out to force the game into extra innings. The Toros batter attempted to bunt on the first pitch but missed, and the ball went to the backstop and the runner from 3rd base came safely home to clinch the game for Spanish Fort.
The Mustangs and Toros met again the following day in the deciding Game 3. Once again, the game was tied 5-5 heading into the 6th inning, but Spanish Fort scored four runs in their at bat. Stanhope Elmore scored 1 run in the 6th, but was shut out in the final inning, as the Toros won the series and advanced to the Class 6A State Championship game.
The outcome was bitterly disappointing for the players and fans that thought this was a championship caliber ball club. However, the back and forth plays made by each team, in suspense filled situations deep in the playoffs with so much on the line, seemed to bring together a community. That community had grown accustomed to deep playoff runs in baseball during the 90’s and 2000s.
In Game 1, with the score tied 3-3, in the bottom of the 6th inning, Freshman Hayden Anderson doubled to left field, bringing home Ethan Walls to move SEHS ahead 4-3. The Toros were able to tie the game in the top of the 7th inning, and had runners on 2nd and 3rd base with only one out when Dylan Dent came in to pitch. Dent got out of the inning with a strikeout and ground out. In the bottom of the 7th, the Mustangs had bases loaded with no outs, and it looked like a win was almost a sure thing. However, the Toros got two consecutive Mustang runners out at home plate on infield ground balls, and suddenly what looked like a sure thing was very much in question. But in keeping with the roller coaster back and forth between the teams, Jackson Stallworth singled to bring home the winning run for the Mustangs.
In Game 2, the Toros held a 9-3 lead after 4 innings. After base hits by Evan Duncan and Colin Woodham to start the 5th, Stallworth had a double, bringing home two runs. Ethan Walls followed that up with a double to bring Stallworth home, cutting the lead to 9-6. The Mustangs scored another three runs in the 6th inning, highlighted by another double by Stallworth. That brought home a run and tied the game at 9. The Mustangs left two runners on base in their half of the 7th before the Toros won it in a walk-off.
The outstanding individual performances continued on to Game 3. After Games 1 and 2 when no Mustang pitcher was able to go longer than 3 innings, Senior Colton Walls got through 4 scoreless innings. Then the Toros were able to put up 5 runs in the 5th, taking a 5-3 lead into a weather delay that lasted almost two hours. As soon as the delay was over, the Mustangs again bounced back, with Anderson bringing home a run with two outs, and Tevin Landrum tying the game with a two out single.
Even after the Toros scored four runs in the top of the 6th, the Mustangs turned an impressive double play to get out of the inning and stop the damage. They were unable to overcome the deficit, and had to watch as Spanish Fort celebrated on their home field.
Despite the outcome, many fans remaining in attendance after the game gave the Mustangs a standing ovation for a great season and incredible effort shown in one of the best baseball series the school has seen in years.
