Mobile Christian’s Zach McKinion delivers a pitch during Monday’s opener of the Class 5A state championship series against No. 1-ranked Alexandria in Jacksonville. McKinion pitched a gutty three-hitter in a 2-1 loss. (Helen Joyce/Call News)
Mobile Christian pitcher Zach McKinion is greeted by his teammates after coming off the mound Monday against Alexandria. McKinion pitched a complete-game three-hitter despite pain from a strained tricep. (Helen Joyce/Call News)
Mobile Christian’s Damien Gatson takes a cut during Monday’s game against Alexandria in Jacksonville. (Helen Joyce/Call News)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. — In the third inning Monday, Mobile Christian ace Zach McKinion turned to coach Jason Smith and issued an ominous bulletin.
“I don’t feel good,” said McKinion, who didn’t pitch last week due to a strained tricep muscle and had escaped what could have been a bases-loaded catastrophe in the first inning.
At the time, the No. 9 Leopards trailed No. 1-ranked Alexandria 2-0 in the first game of the Class 5A state championship series.
Smith called for a reliever to go to the bullpen, then McKinion offered this:
“Coach, give me one more inning.”
Smith acquiesced and McKinion began digging deep into his guts.
“Every inning after that it was, ‘Give me one more,’” Smith said of McKinion.
With gale-force adversity swirling around him, the senior right-hander refused to be uprooted in what turned out to be a 2-1 loss on Rudy Abbott Field at Jim Case Stadium.
McKinion gave Mobile Christian (24-11) a chance to win — pitching a complete-game three-hitter, allowing one hit in the last four innings and retiring eight of nine batters at one juncture — and perhaps more importantly preserving the Leopards’ pitching for Tuesday’s must-win Game 2 of the best-of-three series.
“He truly left it all on the field,” Smith said of McKinion. “He didn’t get to pitch in the playoffs last year. He wasn’t 100 percent today but he wasn’t letting me take him out of the game. He’s a leader. It’s going to be tough to see him go. He poured his heart out today.”
McKinion (7-4) — who threw 75 pitches, 50 for strikes — gave up only his third and fourth earned runs of the playoffs in an enthralling pitcher’s duel with Valley Cubs ace Andrew Allen (8-1), who also threw a three-hitter and struck out 11.
“What a game,” Smith uttered during an exhale after the game. “It was really well pitched. The first couple of innings, we got ourselves in a little bit of a hole. We hit two leadoff batters, their guy was good, Zach was good — game over.”
Game 2 is at 4 p.m. Tuesday and a third game to decide who gets the Blue Map, if needed, will follow.
McKinion didn’t get the win or a save in the traditional sense but holding his ground helped keep Mobile Christian’s remaining pitchers fresh for what Smith hopes are two games Wednesday.
“That was one of our goals,” said McKinion, who said he was pitching in pain from the outset.
“It was very tough,” he said. “It started hurting as soon as I started throwing. But I broke my ankle last year and didn’t get to pitch in the playoffs and I didn’t want the third round (against Tallassee) to be my last game, so I took last week off and I told myself I was going to push through it.”
Alexandria (31-9) — a veteran team with eight senior starters — handed the Leopards their first loss of the postseason after eight straight victories, seven of them by six runs or more.
That was mainly due to Allen, an Arkansas State commitment who threw 70 strikes, did not allow a hit in the last four innings and retired 15 of the last 17 Mobile Christian batters. The Leopards made him work through 108 pitches, close to the limit of 120.
“Our guys did a good job of that,” Smith said. “I wish we could have done it in the fifth or sixth inning and got somebody else out there. He’s just a really good high school pitcher and if he keeps working hard, he’ll be successful in college.”
But although he struck out the side to finish the top of the seventh and final inning, Allen started breathing hard thinking about facing Mobile Christian star Damien Gatson, the South Alabama commitment who had one of the Leopards’ three hits and was batting .464 in the playoffs coming in. He was on deck when the game ended.
“It kind of dawned on me that it might be the last time I pitch a game in high school,” said Allen, whose fastball reached 90 mph during the game. “I wanted to make it the best I could (in the last inning). Gatson is very solid. I did not want to face him at the end of the game.”
Gatson wished he had gotten one last at bat but complimented Allen’s strategy.
“He kept feeding me offspeed stuff knowing I was looking for a fastball,” Gatson said. “He pitched me well. It’s good to know he respects me like I respect him.”
Smith said Allen arrested Mobile Christian’s bunt game, a large factor in its 8-0 start to the playoffs. Gatson had a bunt single in the third to set up the Leopards’ only run, which came on Alex Bennett’s RBI flyout.
“It’s a credit to them,” Smith said. “I don’t know if we got any leadoff hitters on. (Allen) kept us off the bases but tomorrow’s a new day.”
Mobile Christian got its leadoff runners on in the first, when Gatson walked, and in the third when Carson Cooper singled. The Leopards got a runner to second base only three times and left three in scoring position.
“Allen moved his fastball in and out and threw his breaking pitch just enough to keep us off balance,” Smith said. “He buckled down and made the pitches when he had to. We weren’t able to put much pressure on him.”
The Valley Cubs also didn’t push McKinion into an irretrievable corner although he couldn’t lean on his fastball. He got seven groundouts and seven fly or pop outs.
“My fastball was only 80 or 81 (mph) and there were a lot of times I wanted coach to come pull me,” McKinion said. “I usually don’t throw my offspeed stuff like that but it took a lot of strain off my arm and kept them off balance.”
While McKinion had to slow down, Alexandria coach Zac Welch liked the pace of the well-played game, which was over in 1½ hours.
“It was a real clean game,” Welch said. “I felt like we played it in 45 minutes. It was fun to watch. Runs are hard to come by this time of year.”
McKinion escaped a bases-loaded threat in the first by getting a double play when Evan Snow lined out to right fielder Cooper, who doubled up Eli Barnes leaning off first base. Barnes had brought in the first run when McKinion hit him with a pitch on an 0-2 count with the bases loaded.
Mobile Christian put Gatson and Bennett on third and second, respectively, in the top of the first with one out but Allen struck out Gavin Weinshenker on three straight pitches and P.J. Brown on three straight pitches, the last one with a 90-mph fastball for a called third strike.
“After the first inning, our maturity showed,” Welch said.
The Valley Cubs scored what turned out to be the winning run in the second when Ty Brown was hit by a pitch and eventually came home when Nic Thompson singled and got caught in a rundown between first and second.
Welch liked Brown’s alert baserunning on the play.
“The timing was right,” he said. “It was the difference in the game.”
The Leopards’ Walker Seaman (7-1 overall, 2-0 in the playoffs) will start Game 2 as Mobile Christian goes after its sixth state championship since 2015.
“I feel a lot better now,” Gatson said. “We got the jitters out of the way today. We’ve got plenty of good arms ready.”
Alexandria is expected to start left-hander Tripp Patterson, who pitched a perfect game in a 14-0 win over Douglas in the first round.
“I’ve heard comparisons to (former major leaguers) Tom Glavine and Jamie Moyer,” Smith said of Patterson.
