Washington County’s Myles Thornton gets Reeltown pitcher JaMarkius Smith in a rundown in Game 1 of their Class 2A playoff series Friday in Chatom. Smith was out and the Bulldogs won 7-4 but lost the series Saturday. (Jason Boothe/Call News)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
CHATOM — Washington County coach Justin Whitsett looked around his sand-splotched field after his team’s season ended in a 5-3 loss to Reeltown Saturday in the state playoffs and what he saw encouraged him.
Like the grass on the field, which had to be repaired when cranes trampled it to install new lights, the growth of Whitsett’s team from the dormancy of the depths is underway.
Not since the days when Chris Wilson took the Bulldogs to consecutive state championship games in football a decade ago have fans in Chatom enjoyed more than a few licks on the lollipop of athletic success.
But after Whitsett consoled his players in left field, many of those fans remained and applauded in appreciation for WCHS reaching the second round in Class 2A and for what might be coming.
“We got life back in this place,” Whitsett said. “Last year, we had eight wins and half those were terrible teams. We’re graduating one starter. We’ve got everything back. They got a taste of it.”
Rebels coach Matt Johnson, whose team was pushed to the limit, nearly tasted defeat and was glad to escape Chatom with his pitchers dragging their arms behind them.
“That’s a really good team,” he said of the Bulldogs. “One through nine, they’re so hard to get out. Everybody puts the ball in play.”
Washington County (15-19) — which came from behind to win all three of its playoff games — was hitting .420 in the postseason coming into Saturday, led by a trio of players hitting over .500. Ian Powell, who had two game-winning hits in last week’s series against Luverne, led the way at .563, followed by Landon Dearmon (.556) and C.J. Jordan (.500). Three more were hitting better than .400.
The Bulldogs worked over six Rebels pitchers for 411 pitches in the three games, setting the tone in Game 1 when they wore down 6-foot-2 freshman ace JaMarkius Smith and his 90-mph fastball.
Smith left after five innings with a 4-1 lead, having surrendered one hit and a run while striking out 11. While his fastball roared downhill, in the daylight it wasn’t a phantom coming off his hand and Washington County’s batters took 97 pitches out of him. Once he was gone, WCHS rallied to win 7-4.
“They were so patient,” Johnson said of the Bulldogs’ order. “He one-hit them but they got his pitch count up and made him hit his spots. We had to pull him early.”
But on Saturday, in the deciding Game 3 of the series, WCHS fell behind 3-0 in the first inning and never caught up.
“We came out fast,” Johnson said. “We were aggressive on the bases. We executed a hit and run and a bunt.”
Reeltown (23-10) also took advantage of a two-out error by third baseman Ty Owens in the first inning which led to Brody Smith’s two-run single and a 3-0 lead.
But in a fashion typical of this team, the Bulldogs cut the lead to 4-3 with a three-run fifth in which they powdered fatigued Rebels starter Adam Burton with three doubles — one from No. 9 batter Jack Odom and a two-run double by Jordan, both on the first pitch, and an RBI double by Dearmon.
As is the case with teams that are learning to win, WCHS can look back on missed opportunities.
The Bulldogs let a 5-0 lead in Game 2 devolve into a 10-5 loss. On Saturday, Dearmon whacked what looked like a two-run homer in the first but the wind killed it into the glove of center fielder Reed Wood at the fence. And in perhaps the play of the series, Reeltown first baseman Slade Carleton dove to his right to snag Conner Williams’ smash just off the dust with two runners on in the fourth, then tagged the bag for the third out and perhaps saved two runs because the ball would have otherwise rattled around in the right-field corner or got stuck in the sand or rolled through a gap in the fence or ended up in Tibbie.
“That was huge,” Johnson said.
Dearmon took the loss, although he settled down after the first inning and retired 15 of the last 21 batters. He gave up five hits and five runs (three earned) in 6.1 innings.
“He threw 40 pitches the first inning and he made it to the seventh inning,” Whitsett said.
