Kyle Parmley
Oak Mountain Baseball
Oak Mountain's J.J. McDonald (7) hits in a game against Tuscaloosa County on April 19, 2016, at Oak Mountain High School.
No player on Oak Mountain’s baseball team had experienced a taste of playoff baseball before this season. Now, they all have.
The Eagles defeated No. 2 Vestavia Hills in a grinding three-game series last weekend to advance to the second round of the Class 7A playoffs.
“They’ve handled it like I wanted them to,” first-year head coach Derek Irons said. “Are we going to be content, or are we going to continue to improve? I feel like we’ve handled it well.”
The task at hand this weekend is a series against a red-hot Hewitt-Trussville squad, who pounded out 29 runs in a two-game sweep over Hoover, including a walk-off grand slam to sweep the series. The Eagles will host a doubleheader beginning at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. If necessary, the rubber game will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday.
“We’ve got to find a way to slow them down offensively,” Irons said.
He continued, “That’s probably our biggest priority, is just trying to slow them down. Not even shut them down, just slow them down. Keep their numbers manageable and give our offense a chance to scratch a few across.”
After being shut out 4-0 in the opener against Vestavia, the Eagles responded with a 5-0 win and a 5-4 victory in the closeout game.
Joseph Hartsfield fired a one-hit shutout in the second game to keep Oak Mountain alive in the series. Catcher Mason Williamson cleared the bases with a three-run triple in the first inning of that game, and Irons said he felt like that set the stage for the whole day.
The third game was not looking good, as Oak Mountain found themselves down 4-2 with two outs in the fifth inning. But John McDonald’s solo home run lifted the Eagles to within a run.
“It looks like the inning is going nowhere, and that was really a shot in the arm to cut it to one,” Irons said.
Oak Mountain tacked on the tying and go-ahead runs in the sixth inning and slammed the door in the seventh to seal the series win.
The Eagles haven’t tried to reinvent the wheel over the week of preparation, but will continue doing what has gotten them to this point.
That’s been enough so far. Will it be this weekend?
