By Blake Ells
The 7A, Region 6 regular baseball season was quite a ride, with its two playoff spots up in the air into the final weekend of the season.
Just three weeks ago, sixth-ranked Vestavia Hills was playing its best baseball of the season when it took two games from Mountain Brook.
Then, they had a lackluster weekend against Spain Park, splitting two games. The series against the Spartans, however, proved to be enough for the Rebels to join Hewitt-Trussville in the postseason, and it began with another familiar foe.
Vestavia Hills traveled to Hoover and took two of three from the second-ranked Bucs last weekend to advance to the AHSAA State Baseball Quarterfinals against the state’s top team, Bob Jones.
The Rebels trailed 4-2 going into the final frame of game one. But Colton Lewis showed some life with an RBI single, and the Rebels managed to tie it on a bases-loaded walk. Things quickly went south for the Bucs, and Vestavia claimed a 7-4 victory.
“They struggled to throw strikes in the final inning,” said coach Jamie Harris. “We got a couple of guys on; got a couple of clutch hits. We tried to put pressure on them, which has kind of been our thing all year. We ended up scoring five and winning that game.”
The second game on Friday looked much worse for the Rebels in the box score than reality. While they fell 14-0, it remained close for much of the contest. Once things were clearly going south, Harris was determined to save his pitching for an inevitable third game.
“It was 0-0 in the top of the sixth with one out,” the coach said. “Our starter, Garrison Cherry, ran out of gas a little bit. He walked a couple of guys on some really close pitches and they got a clutch hit. We had an error or two and suddenly we’re down 4-0. We knew that being down 4-0 with six outs left, our chances were there. But we weren’t going to waste an arm that we could have on Saturday for those chances.”
Cherry’s younger brother, sophomore phenom Grant, started game three. Grant has already received SEC offers. He throws at speeds topping 90 mph; he has a good breaking ball and changeup. Harris was confident in junior Eli Sawyer backing up the younger Cherry in the series-deciding finale, and he knew that he could also rely on junior Graham Duncan, if needed. The first two proved to be enough.
Grant Cherry completed six innings, throwing 80 pitches. He had amassed a 6-0 lead before giving up his first run in the sixth. And while he potentially could have completed the game, Harris wanted to give Sawyer a clean seventh inning to work with.
“He threw well and closed the door,” Harris said. “They ended up getting a couple of hits off of him. We made an error. There was a walk. It was a little more exciting than we wanted it to be, but that wasn’t necessarily on Eli. He finished the deal.”
Vestavia Hills will host Bob Jones for two games Friday beginning at 4:30 p.m. No passes (except AHSAA) will be honored. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased in advance at GoFan. If a third game is needed, it would be played Saturday at 2 p.m.
