Opp falls in 2nd round
Published 12:07 am Saturday, April 28, 2012
DAPHNE — No. 6 Bayside Academy swept Opp on Friday night in the second round of the Class 3A state playoffs.
The Admirals came back twice from trailing by three runs in the first game to win 7-6 on a walk-off single, and then scored four runs in the fifth inning of game two in an 8-5 victory for the sweep.
The last time OHS made it past the second round of the playoffs was in 1994, when the Bobcats finished runner up.
“You’ve got to win that first game,” OHS coach Michael Cassady said. “We did everything we could to give it away. We out-hit them, but we just didn’t make plays when we needed to. We pitched well enough the first game to win, and we just gave them too many opportunities.
“When you give a good team in the second round too many opportunities, that’s what happens,” he said.
Bayside Academy 8, Opp 5 (Game 2)
The Admirals’ four runs in the fifth inning came on two hits and two walks. The Bobcats allowed 12 walks in the contest.
“We knew that we were going to be down in pitching because our No. 1 is out,” Cassady said. “Tip their hats. I ain’t taking nothing away from them. They have a good, scrappy bunch. Their kids played hard, and they fought to the end.
“When it was the fifth, sixth and seventh, they turned it on,” he said. “We just struggled with throwing strikes and good teams capitalize on that.”
Opp trailed 1-0 in the first inning, but tied the game on an RBI triple from Ethan Davis.
Bayside went ahead 3-1 in the top of the third inning, but Opp cut the lead to one run on another RBI from Davis that scored Jo Jo Jones, who came in for starting catcher Dane Buckelew.
The Admirals loaded the bases in the fifth, and Kevin Masterson and Trip Puckett scored on a walk and a hit-by-pitch, respectively to get things going.
Chris Houseman popped up to score Geoffrey Brooks to record the first out, and the Admirals scored the fourth run on an RBI single from 1-hole hitter Joe Stassen.
The Bobcats scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth on Thomas Weed’s hit that turned into an error, and Jones’ RBI single to score T.J. Bess.
Opp’s T.J. Register went 3-for-4 to lead the Bobcats; Davis went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
Stassen went 2-for-3; and Brooks went 3-for-4 to lead the Admirals.
Joe Vincent earned the win on the mound, recording two strikeouts and allowing five runs on 10 hits.
Bayside Academy 7, Opp 6 (Game 1)
Brooks hit his walk-off single to score Hunter Slater in the bottom of the seventh inning on a 6-6 tie to lead the Admirals to the win.
The Admirals came back to tie it at 6-all in the bottom of the sixth inning on just two hits — an RBI single from Houseman, and then a two-run single from Stassen.
The Bobcats went up 6-3 in the top of the sixth inning, thanks to RBI hits from Buckelew, Register and Russell Moseley.
Earlier in the game, Opp took its first three-run lead when Weed and Trey Short had RBIs to score Brady Vidich and Hayden Nobles in the top of the second to lead 3-0.
The Bobcats had good pitching in the first game, as Brady Jowers pitched 5.2 innings and allowed four runs on six hits and struck out three.
Bayside scored two runs in the fourth inning to cut the lead to one, and then tied it again on an RBI double from Slater that scored Neal Christman in the bottom of the fifth.
Slater went 3-for-4 and scored two runs to lead the Admirals.
Moseley went 3-for-4 with RBIs to lead Opp.
Cassady said he wanted to thank the crowd for making the trip down.
“We had a great crowd,” he said. “It’s been a tough one.”
The Bobcats’ senior class of six players has won 67 games in three seasons.
Opp finished the season with a 20-8.