BT Titans Baseball…State Champs
UPDATE: New pictures added to the flickr gallery
I flew down to surprise Matty to attend his state championship baseball games against Columbus (thanks to Liz for the great idea). Columbus was the defending state champion and had won the title the past two years. Behind two strong pitching performances from Eric and Evan, the Titans won 1-0 and 2-1 to take the state championship in Columbus. The two games were incredible- two of the best games I’d ever seen.
The first game was delayed for about an hour by rain/lightning (we stayed dry under cover). Matty DH’ed in the first game and went 0-2. Eric pitched a gem- only allowing two runners to second and rarely going to three balls on the hitters. Tim made an amazing diving stop in the hole between short and third, got up to gun the runner out at first, and really set the tone for some stellar defense throughout the game. Jonathan also ran down two deep balls in LC and RC later in the game. The games were played in a single A stadium that was 415 to dead center and that really hurt Columbus on a few deep balls. Tim also scored the only run of the game by getting a hit, stealing second, and scoring on an RBI single by Evan. I have to say that Liz was key to the victory- she called and was talking to me right when Evan got his hit. Pitching, solid defense, and some timely hitting were the keys to the win.
Matty also DH’ed in the second game and went 1-2 with a line drive single to RF. Matty got his hit leading off in the 5th but was forced out at second on a sacrifice bunt attempt. Evan pitched an awesome game and battled all through the game- really keeping the Columbus hitters off balance with a variety of pitches and arm angles. The game was nip and tuck all game long and was tied 1-1 in the middle innings. In the 4th Jonathan kept up his hot hitting with a base hit and advanced to third on a bloop single to RF by Jimmy. The RF dove for the ball and didn’t catch it. The second baseman picked up the ball and threw the ball home, but it skipped past the catcher. The pitcher was backing up home and thought the play was over so, with his head turned, didn’t see the ball skip past the catcher. Jonathan raced home on the play to put BT up 2-1. Columbus threatened in the bottom of the 6th and had a runner on third with 1 out. Their guy hit a line drive to RF that Jonathan caught. Coming towards home on the catch, he fired a one hop strike to the catcher to get the runner trying to tag from third (apparently he broke home and had to retreat to tag). The throw was on the money and the catcher caught the ball and had time to set himself before being plowed over by the runner. He held on to the ball and the runner was both out and ejected for not sliding. BT then got the last three out, including the last out on a K, to preserve the win. Mass celebration erupted with a pile-on behind the pitcher’s mound. This was BT’s first state championship in baseball. These were definitely two of the most amazing baseball games I’d seen with clutch plays all throughout the game. BT played error-free ball and took advantage of some Columbus mistakes.
I’ve posted a collection of pictures, both ones I took and some from others, on my flickr page. Here is a direct link to the photo gallery from the championship games:
BT Titans State Championship Gallery
For more photos from the games, check out this photo gallery from the Columbus paper and frankc’s awesome photos from the games (one gallery for each of the state playoff final games).
Here are a collection of links from the Columbus and Atlanta papers describing the two games:
Inning-by-Inning Blog
Errors Seal Fate for Blue Devils
Titans Throw Out Defending Champs
Titans Live Up to Their Billing
Maust Helps Titans to First Crown
Ogawa Can’t Deliver Magic Again
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