LANDRUM– Crescent baseball coach Blair Carson has been telling his team all year that all they need is a chance.
Tuesday night, the Tigers made the most of one.
Crescent won the AA District I baseball title, defeating previously unbeaten and top-ranked Landrum in 12-6 and 1-0 in back-to-back games. The Tigers will move on to the AA Upper State championship series, where they’ll travel to either Legion Collegiate Academy or Gray Collegiate Academy on Friday. That game is suspended due to weather, with Legion Collegiate leading 3-2 in the second inning, and will resume on Wednesday.
“This reinforces what I’ve been telling them that all year,” Carson said. “We played good out-of-region games, and that’s helped a lot this year. Even some of the games we’ve lost, we’re right there. That gives us the confidence to just go out and compete, and if we do that, we know we’ll be right there in the ballgame. Hopefully we can just get a few timely hits and go from there. That’s what it was tonight, and that’s what we know it will be like the rest of the way.”
The two wins couldn’t have been much different. Game one featured plenty of offensive fireworks for the Tigers, including a five-run second inning and a grand-slam by Will McClellan in the third as Crescent built a 9-0 lead and flirted with ending it early via run-rule. Game two, however, was a classic pitcher’s duel, as the Tigers’ Brody Linker went toe-to-toe with Landrum ace Evan Siary.
Siary had a brilliant night, scattering five hits and striking out 16. Siary allowed a leadoff triple, then struck out 12 of the next 16 batters he faced, including striking out the side in the first, third, and fourth innings, including all three strikeouts looking in the fourth.
“That kid they’ve got, he might be the best I’ve seen in high school baseball in my 10 years of coaching,” Carson said. “He just does everything the right way from a pitching standpoint.”
Linker, meanwhile, was doing plenty of things the right way himself. The freshman flirted with trouble all night, twice getting the Cardinals to leave the bases loaded, stranding nine runners in total, and drawing two crucial double-play balls. He struck out eight, gave up four hits, and walked six before giving way to Carson Roberts in the seventh.
“He’s been great at working out of jams all year,” Carson said. “He just finds a way to dig down and get himself out of it a lot of times. That was big. He’s an all-state, all-region kid as a freshman, and he just kind of goes out there and pitches. You don’t see his youth when he pitches. I think he’s confident in his abilities, and I can’t say enough about the way he competed.”
Linker said the way the Tigers swung the bat in the first game gave him confidence that carried over into the second game.
“You’ve got to keep your confidence level high, and it helped to know that our bats were working,” he said. “I tried just to come in and throw strikes and get it done. You’ve got to let your defense work, and get the outs behind you where you need them.”
Crescent’s bats finally started working again in the fifth inning, scratching out a run against Siary. Clay Rebrick hit an infield single that trickled down the third base line, giving the Tigers a two-out runner. He stole second, and scored when Jacob Parnell slapped a ball into right field.
“They found a way to scratch,” Carson said. “We knew if we could get some guys on, we felt like we could steal a few bases. Thankfully, we got one in scoring position. We never thought that would be the game winner, but that’s what it was.”
“I was just trying to stay calm and do everything I can for the team, and let the team do the rest,” Parnell said. “It’s incredible. There’s no better feeling than that.”
Landrum’s best chance came in the bottom of the inning. Siary, Cooper Gentry, and Patrick Clark all drew walks around a strikeout to load the bases, but Linker coaxed a 5-2-1 double-play to end the threat.
“We had a couple other opportunities, but right there with bases loaded and one out, you think a ground ball to the middle or even if they get one, you sneak a run in,” Landrum coach Daniel Little said.” But they made a big play, and you’ve got to tip your hat to them. They made plays when they needed to.”
Little equated the pitcher’s duel in game two to a heavyweight fight.
“It was just blow-for-blow, and they landed one more haymaker,” he said. “You’ve got to tip your hat. We had multiple innings with runners in scoring position, and we just never got them in. Evan was incredible, but their guy threw a great game, too. He mixed pitches, kept the ball down in the zone, changed speeds, he was just very effective. They made a lot of good plays behind him, and he kept us off-balance. They made more plays, and they deserved to win.”
