Lions baseball falls in state final, finishes runner-up
MONTGOMERY — Shortly after Braden Hughes recorded the final out in the final game of the Class 5A state championship baseball series, a throng of purple and yellow jerseys flooded out of the Springville High School dugout and darted toward the pitcher's mound.
A dogpile formed in a matter of moments with Hughes, who had just thrown a complete game, near the bottom.
Briarwood Christian School players watched this unfold from their dugout along the first base line. Some stood and gazed at the infield, while others crouched and fixed their eyes on the Riverwalk Stadium dirt.
It was a hard scene to digest.
After winning the first game in the best-of-three series on Thursday night, the Lions lost consecutive contests on Friday to Springville, 12-9 and 9-3. The defeats cost them a shot at their first state baseball title in school history.
The outcome was stinging, though not defining.
"We're fighters," said Tyler Waugh, the Lions' junior catcher. "We play together every day and we stick together."
Briarwood advanced to the state final for the first time since 2009 because of its cohesion and composure. The Lions started the season 0-11 before going on a tear. They won 20 of their last 25 games and finished the season 20-16.
"It's just a great ride with these guys," Briarwood head coach Steve Renfroe said. "They never looked back. We went through that stretch, showed up every day, just like they were 11-0."
Briarwood came close to capping its season-long ride with a state title. It took a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the decisive third game behind the bats of Carson McKinney and Sam Hamner.
McKinney lofted a fly ball down the right field line that scored Cal Higdon, who pinch ran for Waugh, and Hamner drove in McKinney on a ground ball that dribbled into center field.
McKinney also pitched the first two innings of the last game. He allowed only one hit but exited while warming up for the third inning. McKinney clutched his throwing shoulder as he walked off the mound toward his team's dugout.
Renfroe said that McKinney's triceps muscle tightened up and prevented him from continuing. It was the second blow of the state playoffs to Briarwood's rotation. Andrew Ponder, one of the team's other top hurlers, developed soreness in his throwing shoulder during the semifinals.
Renfroe held him out against Springville.
"We lost probably 10 innings of top-flight guys at the wrong time," he said.
Blake McKenna replaced McKinney in the top of the third. He loaded the bases before recording an out and ended up surrendering eight runs in the frame. The third inning was unkind to Briarwood in both of its Friday games, as the Lions allowed 17 total runs in those innings.
"That was the championship," Renfroe said.
The Lions didn't have an answer offensively. Hughes, Springville's game three starter and the series MVP, held Briarwood in check with the help of a deceptive curveball. He allowed only six hits and struck out six over seven innings.
He said his confidence increased as the game progressed.
"It kept growing and growing as the stakes got hotter," he said.
Springville forced a decisive third game by claiming a 12-9 victory in the second game of the series on Friday morning. The Tigers used a nine-run third inning to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 10-3 lead. Eleven Springville players batted before Briarwood recorded an out.
The Lions trailed 12-4 entering the final inning but rallied for five runs. They had the bases loaded with one out and the tying run at the plate.
But Springville's Chase Isbell came on in relief and struck out the final two batters to close the game. His fastball topped 90 mph.
"We've done it before," Renfroe said of mounting a late comeback. "Even though it didn't happen, we set the stage."
Briarwood prevailed 5-4 in the series opener on Thursday night at nearby Paterson Field.
Noah Whatley recorded all but two outs for the Lions, throwing 81 pitches over 6 1/3 innings. He steadied his team throughout the game. Whatley gave up a home run on his third pitch and endured a fourth-inning weather delay that lasted 2 hours and 31 minutes.
None of it rattled him.
"If you knew him, you'd go, 'OK, that's Noah,'" Renfroe said. "He's just so resilient."
McKinney relieved Whatley and earned the final two outs of the victory, both on pop-ups. Hamner went 3-for-4 with two RBIs to lead the offense.
He drove in his first run in his first at-bat, punching a single to right field, and his second run in his third at-bat, bouncing a ball over the shortstop's head. Hamner's second RBI gave his team a 4-3 lead in the fourth inning.
Springville tied it at 4-4 in the fifth, but the Lions pushed ahead for good when Pierce Colvin sprinted from third base to home plate on a wild pitch in the sixth inning.
The run gave Briarwood a 1-0 edge. The state championship series was the Lions' second of the playoffs that went to three games. They came back from a deficit in the state quarterfinals to knock off Chilton County. In Briarwood's other three playoff series, it swept Munford, UMS-Wright and Sylacauga.
Offensively, Hamner, McKinney and Waugh paced the Lions with five hits apiece in the series. Hamner is one of six seniors on Briarwood's roster. The others are Guin Renfroe, Zack Nuyt, Bryce Perrien, Ponder and Whatley.
Steve Renfroe said they hold a special place in his heart.
"It's the best group I've ever been with," he said.