By T. Scott Boatright
QUITMAN — Long before Billy Beane and analytics, baseball was a numbers game.
Always has been, always will be.
And it was numbers, and the law of averages, that led to a heartbreaking loss for 12th-seeded Choudrant Tuesday night as the Aggies fell at fifth-seeded Quitman 6-5 in nine innings of Class B second-round baseball action at Wolverines Field.
Choudrant led Quitman going into the bottom halves of both the seventh (4-3) and eighth (5-4) innings and both times the Wolverines managed to plate a run to extend the game into another inning.
But after the Aggies failed to score a run in the top of the ninth, Quitman didn’t waste time taking advantage, with the Wolverines’ leadoff batter walking and moving to second base on a sacrifice bunt.
Then the law of averages came into play as Quitman clean-up batter Case West, who had gone 0-3 at the plate so far (he did reach first in third inning on a fielding error) slapped his first hit of the game into left field.
Quitman sent the runner from second and he beat the ball to the plate as the defending state champions erupted in celebration of the win.
That didn’t take away any of the pride Choudrant coach Joel Antley felt for his team and the way the Aggies kept fighting.
“We’ve done this all season — just scrapping to put things together,” Antley said. “We struggle with some things sometimes and do some well the next week. You’ve just got to be able to put it all together.
“A couple of times there I thought we had them, but they battled just like we did. Neither team wanted to lose, that’s for sure. It was a big step. I thought we could win this game. I knew we could win this game. It was a close one last time, so I knew it was going to go down to the end for sure. I didn’t know it was going to go past the end. I’m proud of my guys for never giving up and just pressing and working their tails off.”
Choudrant scored first in the top of the opening stanza as Cash Camp led off with a single before scoring on a Colton Smith single.
But the Wolverines plated a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning off of two hits on Camp, the Aggies’ starting pitcher.
Despite giving up those early hits, Camp worked himself out of the jam, retiring the Quitman side with his third strikeout of the inning.
A big fifth inning at the plate put the Aggies back on top as Choudrant plated three runs off of four hits — an Austin Barmore single, a Camp double that plated Barmore, a Smith single that came off the top of the bat, and a two-RBI double by catcher Wade Watson — to move out on top 4-2.
Quitman added a run in the top of the sixth inning before adding another run in the top of the seventh to tie things up and set up the extra innings showdown.
The Aggies made a pitching change to start the bottom of the seventh, pulling Braden Bagwell from his shortstop role and sending him to the mound.
“If we could have saved 10 more pitches somewhere,” Antley said of having to pull Camp off the mound. “He was over 100 pitches. Who knows? But they started to put the ball into play there later (in regulation innings), and that made a difference.”
Choudrant went up 5-4 in the top of the eighth as Carson Carrico led off with a walk, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Cam Bagwell and then scored on a Cy Spatafora single.
But the Wolverines added a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning as Braden Bagwell walked in a run before knuckling down and recording a strikeout to push the game into the ninth.
Quitman retired all three batters it faced in the top of the ninth before taking advantage of the numbers and the law of averages in the bottom half of the stanza.
An emotional Antley struggled to talk about his seniors — Smith, Watson and Tucker Batterton — after the game.
“Along with lots of others in the past, they were great leaders for us — not just ‘do what I say, but do what I do’ kind of leaders,” Antley said. “So that just means a lot for us to keep going.”
And for the Aggies left to return to Tony Antley Field next season, Antley said the work begins now.
“I told them you got to go right back to work,” Antley said. “I told them that to win championships, you’ve just got to keep working and build it every week. Every time you go out there. Even when you’re playing superior teams, you’ve just got to put your head down and get out there and play.”
