Battle of No. 1s: Live Oak overcomes bleak situation, downs Parkview Baptist in seventh inning
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Live Oak, the state’s No. 1 team in Division I non-select, trailed the state’s top-rated Division III select team, Parkview Baptist, for five innings.
Not only had the home-standing Eagles built a three-run lead against Live Oak ace Sawyer Pruitt, but the visiting Eagles hadn’t managed a hit off Parkview Baptist’s ace Sam Mitchell.
The electricity gave way to a 45-minute delay because lightning was detected in the area, forcing both teams to sit and wait until the beginning of the top of the fifth inning at Parkview Baptist High.
Once action resumed, including both fire-balling pitchers who are going to be college teammates at UL-Lafayette, Live Oak responded an inning later with its first hit of the game – a three-run homer from catcher Cooper Smith – and the visitors broke the tie with an unearned run in the seventh for a dramatic 4-3 victory on Friday.
Live Oak (22-4) extended its winning streak to nine games and improved to 5-1 in one-run games.
“Our team, even though we were down, they weren’t acting like it,” Live Oak coach Jesse Cassard said. “They were still in the game. This team knows anything can happen at any time because we do have a little power. With the right guy up, sometimes that happens.”
Mitchell was masterful in 5.1 innings of work, keeping Live Oak scoreless and without a hit until the sixth. The right-hander hit lead-off batter DeKohta Jones and walked Cameron Washington, bringing up Smith who had previously struck out and walked.
The left-handed hitting Smith, a Louisiana Tech signee, fell behind 1-2 in the count and fouled off two pitches before connecting on a curveball that he hit over the fence 300 feet away in right field.
“I was just looking to stay on something,” Smith said. “He was throwing a lot of fastballs up in the zone. He came over the heart of the plate with a curveball and stayed on it. I was going to try and catch it with my barrel and the wind (15 miles per hour) was blowing out. I wasn’t trying to do too much right there.”
Mitchell followed with the first out of the inning before walking his second batter, resulting in Logan Sorrell coming on in relief. Mitchell struck out six and hit two batters, throwing 59 of 99 pitches for strikes.
“He’s the No. 1 (opposing) pitcher in the state,” Cassard said of Mitchell. “I haven’t seen anyone better. He’s by far the best kid I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a bunch this year. There’s not a kid like that in the state. He’s really good. His command is there. He’s dominant.”
Parkview coach Phillip Hawke wasn’t about to diminish Mitchell’s performance over one pitch.
“It was a heavyweight battle where everything’s magnified,” he said. “We knew coming in what Cooper does and what he’s known to do. I have so much respect for that kid and what he brings. You have a couple of free ones there and he makes a great swing on a good pitch with two strikes. You tip your cap, but it doesn’t take away from what Sam did. He was a warrior, and I was proud of the effort he gave us. We expected it would be like that at the end and when it came down to it, they made one more play than we did.”
Sorrell, who walked and hit batter, was replaced by Will Robinson (1-2) who averted further trouble with a strikeout and pop fly.
“I’ve seen a lot of games when you come back and the momentum has shifted,” Cassard said of the weather delay. “That was a good at-bat by Cooper and he hits the breaking ball out. We’ve still got a whole inning, and we don’t score.”
Pruitt kept Parkview scoreless after the second inning, allowing two hits of his six hits with seven of his 10 strikeouts until reaching the 102-pitch mark following the first two outs in the sixth.
Because of a taxing week that included three wins to remain tied for the District 5-5A lead, Live Oak turned to junior reliever Colt Childres after Pruitt’s departure following 68 of 34 pitches for strikes.
“I hadn’t pitched a lot this year,” said Childres, who made his second appearance of the season. “We had guys who had a bunch of innings this week. We needed some more arms, and he gave me the call and I had to do my job.”
After 6.2 innings of Pruitt averaging 90-miles-hour, the side-arm Childres provided a different off-speed element that made it challenging for Parkview, whose first batter struck out against Childres to end the inning.
Jones picked up his team’s second hit of the game, leading off the seventh with a single to left and Washington’s sacrifice bunt advanced pinch-runner Porter Rutledge to second.
Parkview intentionally walked Smith to get to Brayden Allen who struck out swinging on a 2-2 pitch. With Brock Davis at the plate, he took a third ball from Robinson, and with Rutledge on the move, Live Oak scored the winning run on catcher Micah Landry’s throw into left field.
“An error gets magnified when you don’t have errors throughout the whole game because you’re playing a team of their caliber,” Hawke said. “This is why we schedule these kinds of games. It’s to put ourselves in these kinds of situations and we know going forward it’s only going to make us better as we get over the sting of it, and can really go back and reflect on what we need to get better as a ballclub.”
Cassard admitted putting Rutledge in motion wasn’t the highest percentage play.
“He’s got two strikes and hadn’t had the best day in the world,” Cassard said of Davis. “We’re like, ‘he might throw it into left field.’ It’s against all baseball rules. You should never steal third with two outs, but they weren’t holding him. My third base coach (Cary Myers) looked at me and I said, ‘Let’s run’.”
Childres (1-0) worked a perfect seventh inning against the heart of Parkview’s batting order, getting his second strikeout, and picked up the first victory of his career.
“I hadn’t touched a varsity field until this year,” Childres said. “I had two mediocre outings at the beginning of the year and then they gave me another shot.”
“Colt was cold as ice,” Cassard. “He threw only two balls. I have to give him credit. He became a man today.”
Parkview (18-6), which had its nine-game winning streak snapped, took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second.
Landry doubled in Henry Becker who led off with a single and scored all the way from first base without a throw home. The Eagles added a pair of unearned runs when LOHS third baseman Mac Beadle threw away Tyler Barrient’s sacrifice bunt and a run-scoring from lead-off batter Kelan Guidry capped the frame.
“Sawyer was really good, too,” Cassard said. “We threw away a bunt which we never do, and it snowballed. Normally when Sawyer’s on the mound it doesn’t happen. That’s a credit to them. They weren’t punching out a bunch. They were putting a lot of balls in play.”
Mitchell retired seven straight batters until hitting Washington to start the fourth. He returned after the delay to strike out the side in the fifth until running into trouble in the sixth when Smith tied the game with one swing of the bat.
“We just relaxed and nobody got too tense, especially during the delay,” he said. “As soon as you get too tight and try and do too much, it all goes downhill. That was something special for us right there.”
Featured image courtesy of Live Oak Baseball Fans – Facebook