Mobile Christian coach Jason Smith looks at the Red Map, the state runner-up trophy, after the Leopards lost to Alexandria 8-4 Tuesday in Jacksonville. (Helen Joyce/Call News)
Mobile Christian shortstop Gavin Weinshenker forces out Alexandria’s Bray Goode at second base in the third inning. Weinshenker later stole home to give the Leopards a 3-1 lead, then Goode brought in four runs on a bases-clearing single and an error to give the Valley Cubs the lead for good in the sixth. (Helen Joyce/Call News)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. — After boldly stealing home for a 3-1 lead in the third inning and eliciting perhaps the most benign ejection of an opposing coach ever seen, Gavin Weinshenker and Mobile Christian seemed to have lit their boilers Tuesday and were poised to force a deciding game to determine the state championship.
But the steam seen by the fans who wedged into Jim Case Stadium was coming from the Alexandria dugout, not the Leopards’.
The No. 1-ranked Valley Cubs responded by sending three straight singles barreling into left-center field from the bottom of their order in the top of the sixth and Mobile Christian star Damien Gatson committed a rare error on the last one to let in two more runs as Alexandria went on to beat the No. 9 Leopards 8-4 and lift the Class 5A Blue Map.
Mobile Christian (24-12) committed three errors — all of them leading to runs — and got swept in the finals for the first time after winning five state championships between 2015 and 2022.
It might also have been the first time a coach has ever been ejected for calmly, even politely, asking about a call, not arguing it, when Alexandria’s Zac Welch came out to ask home-plate umpire Steven Downs if he had called a third strike on the Leopards’ Aiden Gaston, which would have ended the third inning before Weinshenker got under the tag of catcher Aiden Brunner. Trackman showed the pitch from left-hander Trent Patterson was a ball.
Welch, who was forced to retreat to a luxury box along the first-base line — “My seat was probably better than being in the dugout,” he said — saw his team of 15 seniors grow even more determined to win after the incident.
“It was how they responded after the fact,” an emotional Welch said afterward. “They played it the same way if I was there or not. They rose to the occasion. They didn’t need me to be there. … These guys have been with me a long time. I’ve been watching them play in state tournaments since they were 8. Fifteen seniors came together and figured out how to win a championship.”
Welch said he asked Downs if the pitch Weinshenker scored on was a ball or strike.
“I didn’t get an answer,” he said. “I don’t know if he understood what I was asking but we never got on the same page. I’m surprised I got tossed. I’m still surprised but it didn’t matter.”
It seemed to matter at the time to Mobile Christian, which never led in losing a tense 2-1 opener on Monday, then climbed ahead 3-1 on Tuesday.
Weinshenker’s calculated steal of home seemed to put the Leopards on firm ground to force a decisive Game 3, especially after Welch was ejected.
Weinshenker had timed Patterson’s stretch move to the plate and knew he could beat it.
“He was a lefty, so his back was turned to me,” Weinshenker said. “I knew he was going to throw from the stretch and I knew I could get there before the ball crossed the plate.”
Mobile Christian coach Jason Smith said his decision to attempt the steal was simple.
“I’ve got one of the fastest guys on the planet and Gavin has the guts to do it and the will to do it,” Smith said. “He wanted to do it a pitch or two before and I had to tell him, ‘Slow down now and wait.’ I thought it changed the momentum at that moment.”
The Valley Cubs (32-9) seemed to be tottering but it was an illusion.
“It was two great teams going at it, punching each other in the mouth,” Welch said.
The decisive punches were thrown by Alexandria in the sixth after the Leopards turned a double play in the fifth to preserve a 3-2 lead. Despite that, Smith saw ominous warning signs when Mobile Christian starter Walker Seaman loaded the bases with a single and two walks and reliever Reid Schmitz hit Bray Goode to force in a run.
“The two walks set the tone,” Smith said.
The Valley Cubs loaded the bases in the sixth with an error and back-to-back singles by the Nos. 6 and 7 batters in Evan Snow and Ty Brown.
Goode, the No. 8 batter who was 0-for-3 in Monday’s opener, grounded a single to center field, where Gatson charged the ball before preparing to uncoil a throw home with his omnipotent arm. But he took his eye off the ball and it squirmed under his glove to the fence to empty the rest of the bases.
Goode got credit for two RBIs and two more runs scored on the error.
“He got a base hit off the end of his bat,” Smith said of Goode. “We couldn’t get him out all day. Damien did what he was supposed to do. He charged it. The runner was coming home. He’s got a really good arm and he’s going to throw him out and we’re going to get out of there with only one run and be excited with the momentum. It happens. People will say that’s why we lost but that’s not why we lost. That was just one play.”
Goode, who was 3-for-3, made an adjustment at the plate.
“I worked on staying back more because I knew we weren’t going to be seeing a lot of speed,” he said, “and I stayed back long enough.”
Clearing the bases and the victory made Welch think nostalgically of his father, Byrd, who cleared the land for Alexandria’s current field when Welch was in the fifth grade. His father has tended to it for 25 years but missed the finals after open-heart surgery at UAB.
“I think he cleared it with an ax,” Welch said, the words jamming up in his throat. “He couldn’t be here today but I know he was watching.”
Smith also watched with pride when Carson Cooper’s two-out RBI single in the bottom of the sixth cut the lead to 6-4 — “We responded, we didn’t quit,” Smith said — but the Valley Cubs got two insurance runs in the seventh.
The Leopards led 2-0 in the first on Noah Blackburn’s two-run, ground-rule double.
Schmitz took the loss, giving up six runs (five earned) and four hits in two innings. Seaman gave up two runs and four hits in 4.1 innings.
Patterson, who suffered collapsed lungs three times in October, got the win, scattering eight hits and four earned runs in a complete game.
“This is the best feeling,” he said. “We’ve been playing together since we were 4.”
The experience and cohesion showed, as Alexandria played errorless baseball in both games.
“I congratulate Alexandria,” Smith said. “They’re a good team. They played well and they pitched well. I thought it was a great series. I’m really proud of our guys.”
Gatson experienced the exhilaration of a state championship by throwing five touchdown passes in the Super 7 finals last December and the dejection of going 0-for-4 and committing only his second error all year Tuesday but he took the stinging loss like a man.
“This year’s been fun with these guys,” Gatson said. “I wouldn’t want to do it with nobody else. I love these guys.”
