Midland Classical scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 7th with timely hitting and aggressive baserunning to grab a 5-4 comeback win over the Rosehill Christian Eagles to capture the 2021 TAPPS Division IV State Baseball Championship Title. It was the first State Baseball Championship for the Midland Classical Knights.
Rosehill Christian jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. With two outs and one runner on, Rosehill picked up three consecutive singles. Zandon Pritchard singled in Chase Behrens. Walter Weinar’s single moved Pritchard over to 3rd and a Thomas Voorheis single scored both Pritchard and Weinar.
Rosehill scored another run in the top of the 6th when David Barbato singled in Weiner to give Rosehill a 4-0 lead. With Alex Forsythe on the mound, things looked good for Rosehill Christian. Forsythe had only given up two hits through five and had retired 11 of the last 13 batters.
But that’s when good things started to happen for Midland Classical. Reagan Layh started off the bottom of the 6th with a bunt single and Cort Miller followed with a line drive single to left. Josh Patterson hit a ground out but the runners advanced to 2nd and 3rd. With Logan Acuff at bat, Forsythe uncorked a wild pitch that not only scored Layh from 3rd but Miller also scored from 2nd on the wild pitch.
“That was all instinct and trust,” Miller explained. “I was booking it to third base and my coach said ‘Go! Go! Go!’ So I just trusted him and he trusted me. That really got our team going and gave us some momentum.”
With that momentum, Midland Classical pitcher Paul McMillan came out in the top of the 7th and got a 1, 2, 3 inning to set up the heroic bottom of the 7th.
With one out in the 7th, McMillan started things off with a single and Layh walked. Miller picked up his second hit of the day with a single to left, scoring McMillan and cutting the Rosehill lead to 4-3. Layh and Miller went to 2nd and 3rd on a double steal and Patterson was intentionally walked. Lance Acuff hit a hard ground ball to the pitcher who went for the double play. The Rosehill shortstop caught the throw from Forsythe for the 2nd out but his throw to first base was wide and got away. Layh scored on the ground ball and Miller, once again running hard from 2nd, touched third base and was waved home to score the winning run, a 5-4 victory for the Knights.
“I knew they were going for the double play but I knew Josh would be trying to break it up and Logan would be hustling down the line,” Miller added. “I ran hard and saw coach’s eyes get big and waving me home. I knew the ball must have gotten away. I almost ran over Coach Patterson but I made it home and that was the game.”
“Today was very typical of our season,” said Midland Classical Head Coach Charles McMillan. “We’ve had a couple of extra inning games, some walk offs, some close games where we were under pressure. Lots of situations where our guys had to pick each other up. Our guys know how to do this. And they did it again today.”
Miller was 2-4 with an RBI, a stolen base and two big runs. He was named the THSB Championship Game MVP.
