Mobile Christian dominant in sweep of Tallassee, eyes another title run

 

By JIMMY WIGFIELD

MOBILE — Damien Gatson brought out the paddle in his first appearance at the plate Wednesday, then Mobile Christian brought out the brooms.

Gatson spanked a solo home run leading off the first inning in the opener, sending rabbits and squirrels scrambling for cover in the woods behind the right-field fence.

Unlike the local animals, Tallassee could not find shelter until it got back on the bus.

The No. 9-ranked Leopards gorged themselves on fat pitching, rummaging through nine Tigers pitchers on the way to a 7-1 and 13-1 sweep in the quarterfinals of the Class 5A playoffs at Richardson Field.

After stumbling to a four-game losing streak entering the playoffs, Mobile Christian (22-10) won its sixth straight postseason game by a combined 66-16 and is loudly signaling it will challenge for its sixth state championship since 2015.

“I’m excited we are playing another week,” Leopards coach Jason Smith said.

If they keep playing this way, they’ll be playing two more weeks and taking a trip to Oxford and Jacksonville for the state finals.

Gatson — the elite center fielder who has committed to South Alabama — is leading the way, hitting .450 in the playoffs (9 for 20) with two homers, seven steals and eight RBIs after hitting .396 in the regular season.

Gatson, who quarterbacked Mobile Christian to its first Super 7 state football championship last December, came to the plate in the opener and slammed a low fastball, the second pitch he saw from Brady Mason, into the trees behind right field.

“I was just trying to stay loose and get on base,” Gatson said.

His teammates followed his example on a day in which the Leopards had 21 hits, seven for extra bases. Tallassee used nine pitchers who managed to throw just 121 strikes in 241 pitches. When the Tigers threw a pitch into the strike zone, it got mutilated. The net in left-center field kept flinging back missiles that would have otherwise been home runs.

“They’re feeling confident and they’re able to execute,” Smith said of his players. “It’s May and they’ve been doing it for 4½ or five months now, so they’ve gotten comfortable.”

They made Tallassee coach John Goodman feel uncomfortable and helpless.

“I’ve never been associated with a situation where we couldn’t do anything,” said Goodman, who has won two state championships with the Tigers. “We were pitching behind, pitching up in the zone, we couldn’t get anything going, and when you’ve got a team that hits it like they do, you can’t make mistakes like that.”

Goodman said his team being pushed to three games in each of the first two rounds might have been a factor.

“We’ve been on a week’s rotation and then we come here on a three-day rotation,” he said. “With us, it’s the entire staff. We try to get four, five, six, seven innings out of someone and go to the next guy. I don’t know if it was the short week or what but they laid the old golden egg this time.”

A lot has changed for Mobile Christian since losing the area championship to St. Paul’s and looking like a team that would get eliminated in the first round for the second straight year.

“After the St. Paul’s series, we took it into our own hands,” Gatson said. “Our preparation has been good since then. Our coaches have challenged us at practice and made us face tough situations.”

Smith said his players have rid themselves of tension in the postseason.

“Maybe it’s just relaxation,” he said. “St. Paul’s is always a big series and a friendly rivalry. The kids know each other and have played against each other going back to the parks. We might have been a little tight but now we’re relaxed more.

“We had some really good at bats today. We didn’t try to do too much. Things are slowing down a lot and they’re letting their ability take over. It’s been satisfying watching them hit the last couple of weeks.”

The Leopards were just as impressive defensively. In Game 1, Zach McKinion (7-3) improved to 3-0 in the playoffs by allowing six hits in a complete game. He didn’t walk anybody and leaned on two early superb plays when the outcome was still in doubt.

In the Tallassee first, Brody Wisener was thrown out at the plate when Thomas Lemmond grounded to third baseman Bryce Rivers, who threw to catcher Noah Blackburn for the out.

An inning later, Gatson showed off his arm as Walker Wells tried to stretch a single to center field into a double. Gatson came up throwing to second baseman P.J. Brown, who made the tag for the out.

After giving up five hits but no runs in the first two innings, McKinion allowed only one hit in the last five innings and gave up an unearned run.

McKinion was so effective that he threw four pitches or less to 24 of 26 batters.

Mobile Christian 7,

Tallassee 1

 

In the opener, the Leopards took a 5-0 lead after one inning and McKinion retired nine straight batters at one point to take control.

Brown hit a two-run single in the first and finished with three RBIs. Gatson had two hits and two RBIs and Gavin Weinshenker had two hits, both on bunt singles. Weinshenker had three bunt singles in the two games.

Mobile Christian 13,

Tallassee 1

In Game 2, the Tigers (19-11) got swept for the first time this season as the Leopards piled up 13 hits to win on the mercy rule after five innings.

Gatson, Rivers, Alex Bennett, Aiden Gaston and Chandler Carpenter each had two hits. Bennett had three RBIs and Gatson, Brown and Carpenter each drove in a pair of runs.

Walker Seaman (6-1) won his first playoff game, allowing two hits and a run in 2.2 innings. Reid Schmitz finished with 2.1 innings of scoreless, one-hit relief.

Mobile Christian visits Valley or Holtville in the semifinals next week. The Leopards are 67-13 in the playoffs with five state championships since 2015.

“They’ve got an uphill battle with Valley or Holtville,” Goodman said. “They’ve got to travel like we did and I know both of those teams and they’ve got real good pitching and they’re swinging it real good. It ought to be a good series.”