The Red Bay High School varsity baseball team was eliminated from the AHSAA playoffs by the Mars Hill Bible School on Saturday night.
The Tigers, ranked No. 6 in the final Alabama Sports Writers Assocation poll, split the first two games of the quarterfinal series against the Panthers, ranked No. 7, but dropped the decisivie game three in a tight 4-3 contest.
“We gave it our best shot and sometimes you come up short,” Red Bay head coach Donovan Hand said. “I asked our kids after the game if they left everything out on the field and they said they did. That’s all you can ask of them.”
Red Bay was defeated 2-1 in the opening game of the series. The Tigers’ lone run of the game came in the top of the second inning when Carson McGee hit an RBI single to score Harley Strickland from third base and give RBHS an intial 1-0 lead.
Red Bay’s advantage fell apart in the bottom of the fifth inning when an error by starting pitcher Ty Reynolds, who tossed a complete game, allowed two Panther base runners to score. Reynolds would finish the game with five strikeouts and no earned runs off three hits.
In game two, the Tigers pulled out a 6-5 victory with a walk-off hit-by-pitch in extra innings.
McGee got the start on the mound for RBHS in game two and allowed three runs in the top of the first inning. The Tigers responded, however, tying the ball game up at 3-3 after an RBI single by Strickland, an RBI walk by McGee, and an RBI fielder’s choice by Landyn Lewey.
Mars Hill retook the lead with one run in the second, but Red Bay was able to grab solo runs in the fourth and fifth innings. The game-tying run was knocked in by Jeramiah Thorne in the fourth and it was followed up by a wild pitch in the fifth that scored Jaxson Swann as the go-ahead run.
Down to their final three outs in the top of the seventh inning, the Panthers scored one to tie the game up and send it to extra innings. In the ninth inning, Red Bay stayed alive in the series by scoring the game-winng run on a pitch that hit Jeramiah Robinson and scored Strickland.
The pivotal game three was another close affair, but it ended for Mars Hill as it had for Red Bay the previous evening—with a walk-off.
Red Bay took a quick 2-0 advantage in the top of the first when Reed Hamilton smacked an RBI single and Landyn Lewey drew a walk to score Hamilton.
Mars Hill went ahead in the fifth inning after scoring single runs in the third, fourth, and fifth innings, but Red Bay was able to tie it up in the sixth thanks to an RBI single by Robinson.
Down to their final out of the seventh inning, Mars Hill won the game 4-3 when the Panthers’ Cody Willis hit a go-ahead RBI single.
“Can’t take anything away from Mars Hill. They did a good job executing everything they needed to do to beat us,” Hand said. “25-9 is a pretty dang good year no matter where you end up, and for us it’s two straight appearances deep in the playoffs. We thought we had a chance to go further, but it didn’t go our way. That’s just how it goes sometimes.”
The losses were relatively few and far between for the Tigers this campaign as Red Bay was the Franklin County Tournament runner-up and secured the Class 2A Area 10 title.
“It was a great year with a lot of big wins. We beat Deshler at home, Whitesburg Christian at home, got to go to Toyota Field (in Huntsville) and beat a New Hope team,” Hand said. “We beat Decatur Heritage, who was ranked No. 2 or 3 in 2A having come down from 3A. We got a chance to compete against them in the second round and face some high-quality players—guys that are going to play college ball and beat them, so it was a great year.
“As I’ve gone through my career, you realize that you can’t take these things for granted,” he added. “It’s special to get to experience these things. You get my age and older, you know, these guys are gonna remember these days forever.”
Hand said he credits the 2025 senior class for putting in the work and for trusting in him and trusting in the process over the last four years. That, the head coach said, is what has allowed the Red Bay Tigers to achieve marked success the last two seasons.
“They had to put full trust in me and my staff when I first came, and that’s not easy for 14-, 15-, 16-year-old kids,” Hand said.
“It hasn’t all been pretty. My first year there were a lot of bumps and bruises,” he added. “The second year we started competing and seeing progress, and then last year and this year has been the reward for that.
“These guys have carved out the path that they wanted. They had a vision, and this program is going to benefit from what these guys have done for years and years to come.”
The 2025 Red Bay team, Hand believes, will be remembered for its doggedness, its character, and the legacy it leaves behind.
“This team, they don’t ever give up. They’re super talented individuals as baseball players, and that’s shown in the success they’ve had, but they’re even better young men,” Hand said. “They’re good role models for our younger generation, and one thing we’ve talked about a lot is when you find something you love and want to do, leave it better than you found it. Absolutely this group did that.
“This team is 46-18 the last two years, and in the last two years we’ve won more playoff games than we won in the whole regular season my first year,” he added. “They’re a special group. This team could be the start of something great for a long time at Red Bay.”
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