In both games to start the postseason, Tallassee had its back against the wall.
In Game 1 on the baseball diamond, the Tigers faced a multi-run deficit and had to claw their way back in for a 6-5 victory. And it was a similar story in the second game against Munford.
Although Tallassee had the lead early, Munford swarmed back and took a two-run lead in the top of the seventh. But some heroics led Tallassee to a 7-6 walk-off victory.
“Oh, I don’t care how we win at this point,” Tallassee coach John Goodman said with a laugh. “It doesn’t matter to me. You just gotta advance.”
And advance the Tigers did.
Tallasee will now head to the AHSAA Class 4A second round, where they will face W.S. Neal at home starting at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. An if-necessary game will be held Friday.
“We’re trying to find out everything we can about them right now,” Goodman said. “We’re still searching and looking and asking, but at this point in time, we’re really more concerned about us and getting better every day.”
Although Goodman said he doesn’t know yet what he’s going to do as far as his pitching lineup goes, he knows that’ll be a key factor in grabbing a victory Thursday.
“We have got to have solid pitching,” Goodman said. “We’ve got to throw strikes and when we’ve got base runners, we got to get them in and we can’t leave them on base. If we do that, we’ll be fine.”
That seemed to be one of Tallassee’s biggest issues in the opening round. Although the Tigers were getting runners on base, they were often left stranded — until the end that is.
In Game 1, Munford led the way 5-2 after four frames before Tallassee scored a pair of runs in the fifth and sixth innings. The Tigers hit the ball well throughout the game, racking up 11 singles on the day, but it wasn’t until the later innings when they started consistently putting runners across.
Abram Whittington led the way with three hits, while Brue Milner and Konner Taunton each had two apiece.
On the pitcher’s mound, Thomas Lemmond got things started, going the first five innings and allowing five runs on six hits, two walks and six strikeouts. Jack Butler and Chase Webster closed things out with an inning apiece. Neither allowed a run.
Although Tallassee led most of the way in Game 2, it was another round of catchup in the final inning as Munford put across three runs and took a 6-4 lead in the top of the seventh. Serving as the home team, the Tigers had one last chance at bat and took great advantage.
Lemmond led off, getting on base on an error and Taunton followed with a base after being hit by a pitch. Brandon Goodman then bunted into an error, scoring Lemmond. Another error on a fly ball led to Tallassee’s game-tying run and Chase Gough played hero by smacking a walk-off single to score Hudson Timmerman and win the game.