Another year, another Golden Tiger baseball season, another postseason place secured, another Area 14 championship won. The Russellville High School varsity baseball team was victorious in all three of its games last week, two of which came with major implications.
The Golden Tigers, ranked No. 6 in the latest Alabama Sports Writers Association poll, downed area foe West Point twice in the two game set, earning a playoff bid with the first win and capturing the area crown with the second.
“I think this depicts the culture that we’re trying to create in our program. We expected to do this. Winning the area was an expectation,” Russellville head coach Jess Smith said. “It certainly makes me super proud to be associated with them, this team, you know?”
“I’ve challenged these guys as often as I can and they’ve responded to every challenge, so I couldn’t be more proud of this team,” he added.
Russellville (22-9) defeated the Warriors 19-3 on April 8, run-ruling its opponent to purchase a playoff spot. Senior Daniel Askew had a team-high three RBI in that game, while catcher Michael Scofield was a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate. Starter Cayden Johns went five innings, allowing just one earned run, before being relieved by Ty Engelthaler, who sat down the side in order in the sixth to end it.
“I think we put a lot of pressure on West Point to make plays,” Smith said after the game. “They had some unfortunate mistakes, but credit to our guys. We had double-digit hits again—12 hits from our guys.”
Due to last week’s weather, pinning down an exact time to play out the remainder of the series was a task. On Thursday, the originally scheduled day to play, word came down that the second and final game of the series would be played on Friday at Northwest Shoals Community College. The teams decided to forego a third game since any result in that one would have no effect on the area standings.
Prior to confirming the game time, Smith was alert to the potential adverse effect waiting around to play could cause and he said he challenged his players to stay “locked in.”
Challenge accepted.
While the Golden Tigers’ Friday victory wasn’t quite as thumping as the Monday result, it was pretty close. Russellville dispatched West Point 16-5, run-ruling the Warriors in five innings.
Wasting no time, the Golden Tigers opened the scoring in the bottom of the first. A leadoff triple by Askew was immediately followed up with a sacrifice fly by Brayden Entrekin to score the second baseman from third to make it 1-0.
Askew, who went 6-for-7 against West Point, finished the week with a remarkable eight RBI and eight runs scored.
“Daniel Askew this week had outstanding performances,” Smith said. “That’s stellar (performance) from your leadoff hitter and one of your older leaders, getting hot before the playoffs.”
The Golden Tigers did not let up in the second inning, scoring seven runs to make it 8-0. A two-RBI single by Askew, a three-run double by designated hitter Neyland Baker, an error, and a wild pitch were responsible for the massive seven-spot second.
Russellville nearly doubled its lead again in the third with six more runs to bump its advantage up to 14-1. A Cayden Johns single scored two runs before Askew, once again, drove in two more with a double. A sac fly from Baker scored Askew and then another West Point wild pitch scored Brandt Cummings from third base.
The Warriors tacked on two runs in both the fourth and fifth innings, but an additional two runs in the bottom of the fourth—an error scored Askew and Ty Willis—was enough to seal the game for the Golden Tigers.
“It was an overall great team win for us,” Smith said.
Brayden Entrekin started the game on the mound for Russellville and tossed four innings, allowing three runs, one earned, off five hits with five strikeouts.
"Tripp (Cleveland) received an injury that may sideline him for a couple weeks, so we gave Brayden Entrekin an opportunity to get a start on the mound,” Smith said. “He’s been primarily used out of the bullpen for us, but I thought he did a great job. He threw strikes and threw fastballs and offspeed pitches for strikes in any count, so it was good to see, especially from a young guy in an area championship game.”
Looking at the Golden Tigers now—area champions and a top 10 team—one might forget Russellville opened the season with a 3-5 February, sluggish bats, and had some issues making routine plays routine. Like all athletes, like all teenagers, like all mortals, the Golden Tigers were not immune to doubt—coaches included. But at the end of the day, Smith said, perseverance won out.
“I heard one of our seniors…over spring break in conversation say that, you know, he was a little unsure when we were (8-7) at one point this season. Now here we are, in the last week of the regular season, and we’re 22-9,” Smith said.
“I think I said it last year, but I’m not naive to the situation that in the transition from Coach Heaps to my taking over the program that, you know, there may have been question marks about what this program will continue to be. And I don’t mean that in a negative sense because that curiosity is valid and, I’ll be honest, I’ve shared that same curiosity,” he added. “Contrary to popular belief, coaches need the players more than the players need the coaches, so I’m extremely thankful to be associated with this program and this team and I’m super proud of them.”
“It’s been a really special run by these guys, and they’ve bought into the mentality that I’ve asked them to, which has been huge.”
The Golden Tigers capped the week with a 5-1 road win over Brooks on Saturday. Coming off a huge win and an area title game the previous evening, Russellville didn’t show many signs of a let down. The Golden Tigers jumped out to score four runs in the opening three innings and added one more insurance run in the seventh. Brandt Cummings tossed five innings and had a no-hitter going through four. He finished with one hit, one unearned run allowed, and four strikeouts.
“I thought we could have executed some situations offensively better. I think we left some runners in scoring position more than we’d have liked to, but there are going to be days like that in baseball where your offense isn’t firing on all cylinders,” Smith said. “You want to consistently, no matter what, pitch well and play good defense. I think with our offense not clicking on all cylinders, it’s good to see us win games by pitching and playing good defense.”
“I told the team…we want to play the brand of baseball that is our standard (against Brooks) but I wanted the guys to just enjoy the game together. I want to see how much fun we can have playing baseball and try to make memories together for however long as we have together,” Smith added. “I think the guys played with an edge, but they also played loose enough that they were enjoying being out there with each other. That was special for me to watch.”
The Golden Tigers will honor their seniors in their final regular season game against Mars Hill on Monday before the playoffs begin on Friday. Russellville will host Pleasant Grove in a doubleheader starting at 5 P.M. with a game three on Saturday, if necessary.
The stakes are even higher now, but the message heading into the weekend, Smith said, will be the same the coaching staff has been preaching all season.
“Your focus has to be on winning each day and winning each pitch. You can’t look ahead and try to create matchups or situations down the road. You’ve got to be where your feet are and dominate every single day of preparation leading up to that playoff series,” Smith said. “I’m looking forward to this journey with our team. A lot of this season we’ve prepped our guys for these moments, talking about focusing on one day, one pitch, one play at a time; being present in the moment; not looking ahead. This is when it comes to fruition, this is what you work for.”
Grateful for the support his team has received all season, Smith’s last word was a message to Golden Tiger fans:
“I’ve been extremely thankful to our community throughout the season. I think Russellville provides, arguably, the greatest home field advantage in the state of Alabama in all classifications,” he said. “I’d like to ask the community to continue to do that in support of our players.”
“We feed off of your energy and we’d love to have a huge crowd that gives us that Russellville home field advantage,” he added.
“It’s the best time of the year in Russellville, Alabama, playoff time."
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