It was a tale of two games as Oak Grove used its experience to overcome a four-run deficit and walk-off rival Petal 8-7 on Friday night at Harry Breland Field.
Down by one with runners at second and third in the bottom of the seventh, and with his team needing a bounce-back win after being run-ruled the previous night, it was a situation that Foster Mitchell knew he could handle. That’s because, in last season’s playoffs, Mitchel and his team were in almost the exact situation against Brandon as Oak Grove was run-ruled but answered back with a walk-off win by none other than Mitchell.
Sure enough, Mitchell delivered a two-run RBI single to walk-off Petal.
“I want to be up for that, but at the same time, I was a little nervous, and I was excited,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t have any doubt. I had been in the situation before at Brandon last year in the playoffs, so I was prepared.”
Oak Grove coach Chris McCardle credited his team for their response after losing to Petal 12-2 on Thursday night.
“The difference between last night and tonight is that we competed hard,” McCardle said. “They responded to the challenge I gave them last night. It was just Warrior pride. We hung in there. Petal has a really good team, and they played a really good series with us. Our district is tough, so we are fortunate to come out of here with a win.”
As for Petal, in the last two seasons, the Panthers hadn’t exactly been in the situation of playing ahead, and it showed. Petal had several chances to blow the game open early as the Panthers left 11 runners on base while their pitching staff walked a combined five batters and hit three others.
“At the end of the day, you have to learn how to win,” Petal coach Jake Mills said. “Great job by (Oak Grove) to stay in it because a lot of high school teams just fold. Four of their runs scored on free bases from walks and errors. That’s something that has haunted us all year. It’s one of those deals that we have to eliminate that. We just didn’t execute. It comes down to timely hitting, good pitching and execution.”
“Nobody over here mentioned last night all day. I think it was a little complacency. We knew they were going to fight tonight. It didn’t matter if we were up 10-0. It goes back to executing in big moments.”
In the first three innings of the game, momentum belonged to Petal as the Panthers jumped out to a 5-1 lead.
Oak Grove and Petal traded runs in the first. Petal Jayden Mark driving in a run with an RBI sac fly while the Warriors’ Jack Sikes came up with an RBI single. Both teams left runners on base, with the Panthers stranding two and Oak Grove leaving the bases loaded.
Oak Grove’s pitching struggled early on, with starter Micah Daniell only lasting 1.2 innings and reliever Brodie Wedgeworth having a slow start. The duo combined to allow five runs, walk seven batters and hit another.
“We still have a lot of things to work on,” McCardle said. “We have to get our starting pitching to go deeper in games for us.
“We walked 10 guys, and we had eight in the first three innings. It’s hard to win that way. We overcame it, but we have to get better on the mound.”
Petal capitalized in the second inning by scoring three runs, with Blake Roberts coming up with an RBI single. Jayden Mark and Blake King delivered back-to-back RBI singles to extend the Panthers’ lead to 4-1. Then in the third, Keegan Giger came up with an RBI single.
Despite the early hits, Petal left runners on base and left the bases loaded in the fourth, which proved to be critical because Oak Grove began to seize the momentum in the bottom half of the frame.
Oak Grove took out Petal’s starting pitcher Blake King, who gave up one unearned run as he walked three batters, hit three others and struck out four in three innings. King was relieved in the fourth after giving up a pair of walks to start the inning. AJ Maddox then delivered a two-run RBI double while McKinley Gieger drove in an additional run on a fielder’s choice to narrow the game to 5-4.
Yet Petal’s offense didn’t fade away as Mark, who was 3-for-4 with four RBIs, came up with a two-run double in the sixth inning to extend the Panthers’ lead to 7-4. Oak Grove answered back in the bottom of the frame with another RBI single from Sikes. Again, Petal missed on an opportunity to add a needed cushion in the seventh as the Panthers left two runners in scoring position.
“Anybody that was a part of this game felt the tides turn,” Mills said. “It was a very poor job tonight of situational hitting. That’s something that one night is good, and the next night it’s not. That’s just the game of baseball. It’s one of those deals you have to step up and want to be in that moment and execute.”
However, McCardle knew for Oak Grove to win the game that the Warriors we need the top of their lineup to come up. The bottom half of the order for Oak Grove delivered as it came up with a pair of base hits.
“We finally got some hits there at the end,” McCardle said. “I felt going into that last inning that if we could get back to the top of the order that we could win it. Luckily, we had the right guys up to do that.”
Gieger then delivered an RBI double that eventually set up Mitchell’s game-winner. Oak Grove improved to 12-4 overall and 3-1 in region play, while Petal drops to 8-9 and 1-3.
“I knew that this team fights hard, so I wasn’t worried,” Mitchell said. “I knew we were going to come back, especially since we got their starter off the mound. I had the confidence we were coming back. We told everyone that one game is not going to mess the whole season up.”
