For the first time this season, the Russellville Golden Tigers found themselves in some unfamiliar territory last weekend.
After routing Corner by a 10-2 final to take game one in their 5A second round matchup, the Yellow Jackets stunned the Golden Tigers in game two in an 8-3 win to force a game three on Saturday.
A couple of uncharacteristic errors combined with some untimely outs, as Russellville lined into two rally-killing double plays in game two and the Golden Tigers had their backs against the wall facing adversity on the road in an elimination game.
Heading into game three, the Golden Tigers needed something, anything, to get their mojo back in time for game three on Saturday.
And it all started with a message from their skipper.
“I sent our guys a message early Saturday morning and wanted to remind them that competitive greatness is defined as being your best when your best is needed and there’s never been a greater time in our program to demonstrate that than today,” head coach Chris Heaps said. “I really felt like the adversity of being number one in 5A and playing on the road, we needed that a little bit. We’ve talked about how adversity is not what makes you a man but it reveals where you are as a man and I really felt like that adversity was something we needed in order to be tested as to where we were.”
Safe to say that message was well-received.
The Golden Tigers managed to get both leadoff runners on in both the first and second innings but couldn’t bring them home. Then in the third inning, as the first three batters managed to reach, Nick Smith came to the plate with the chance to put the Golden Tigers on the board early.
And Smith delivered.
The third baseman, who was still looking for his first hit of the series coming into his second at-bat of game two, crushed a 1-1 pitch over the left-centerfield fence for a grand slam to put the Golden Tigers up 4-0 and they never looked back.
“Nick didn’t look like himself in that first at-bat and we have a saying that, ‘in order to be a successful hitter, you have to have a short-term memory’, and he came up in his second at-bat and after missing on a swing, he hits that grand slam and just does a great job,” Heaps said.
Corner was able to snag a run in the home half of the fourth inning before Cole Barnett doubled home a run and Casen Heaps came through with an RBI single to extend the Golden Tiger lead to 6-1 after the fifth inning.
Reed Hill worked a bases-loaded walk to bring home another run in the top of the sixth inning before Barnett grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored the eighth run of the game for Russellville.
With Gordon White on the mound, the senior righty mowed through the Yellow Jacket lineup through 5.1 innings while allowing only three runs (one earned) and striking out two before giving way to Hill who took over on the mound to close things out the rest of the way.
“We came into Saturday with a good plan and we worked on some stuff for about an hour before we left for Corner and we had a good attitude. And that’s what I told our guys. I said ‘you have to go down there knowing that you’re prepared to do what is needed’,” Heaps said. “We just felt like we had the better pitching staff in game three and we put a lot of pressure on them and had some guys that stepped up for us in some big spots.”
Now the Golden Tigers will turn their focus towards hosting Alexandria High School for their quarterfinal matchup with games one and two being played this Thursday and game three, if needed, played on Friday.
Russellville does have some familiarity with Alexandria as their final matchup of the pandemic-shortened season last year was against the Valley Cubs and the Golden Tigers were forced to hold their senior night on the road.
“Their head coach, coach Shaw, is one of the best men in baseball that I know and they’ll be well-coached with a lot of fight in them. They’re going to have some guys that aren’t overpowering but can pitch well and they make you earn everything,” Heaps said.
In addition to the aforementioned season finale in 2020, the Golden Tigers have also squared off with the Valley Cubs during playoff runs in recent years as well.
In 2015 and 2016, as Russellville was on their way to the first two of their three-straight state titles, the Golden Tigers swept the Valley Cubs in both series and will be looking for a similar outcome this Thursday night.
