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| Central eliminates Wallace at state tourney | 2008-05-11 |
| HANCEVILLE—A long night turned into an even longer day for the Wallace Govs at the ACCC State Tournament here Sunday afternoon. The Govs seemed to be sleepwalking through much of their elimination game against the Central Alabama Trojans. It wasn’t until the sixth inning that the Govs showed some signs of life, but that couldn’t be sustained. The Trojans rallied for three runs in the top of the seventh and held on to defeat the Govs 6-3. | |
 The loss was the second in as many days for the Govs at the state tournament, so this loss meant the Govs were sent packing. It also meant the end of the season for the Govs.“It just wasn’t our day,” Wallace coach Mackey Sasser said. “We hit a bunch of balls on the nose but these 30 to 40 mile per hour winds kept knocking them down. Hitting the long ball is part of our game. The wind took us out of that and our guys never adjusted.” Part of what happened to the Govs on Sunday actually began on Saturday. The Govs played late into the evening before eventually losing to Jeff State. Arriving back at their hotel after 11 p.m., the Govs still weren’t able to get to sleep. Tornadoes were in the Hanceville and Cullman area, so when the hotel sirens sounded, the Govs and Central spent much of their time hunkered down in a hallway. On top of that, the two teams were set to play at noon the next day—or as it turned out—later that same day. The lack of rest was obvious for the Govs. A usually hot hitting team, Wallace only had one hit through the first five innings. Gov starting pitcher Andrew Hockenbury pitched a decent game, but got no offensive support. And in the third inning, Hockenbury ran into trouble. Cody Coker got things started for the Trojans when he reached base on a swinging bunt. Wallace then committed an error, and that opened the door for Central. The Trojans then got back-to-back-to-back RBI hits from Jake Anderson, Luke Chapman, and Justin Williams, giving them a 3-0 lead. The Govs finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth when Trojan pitcher Tyler Jordan ran into trouble. T.J. Rivera got things started with an infield single, and with one out, Ryan Reece walked. With two outs, Brett Chamberlain plated the Govs first run of the game with his RBI single to left field. Rafael Carlot knocked in the Govs other two runs with a solid single to right, tying the game at 3-3. “One thing you always want to do in a situation when you have just scored three runs is to go out and get the other team out,” Sasser said. “But that didn’t happen.” What did happen is Hockenbury gave up a lead-off single to Rhett Barnes. Then on a bunt, Hockenbury was unable to field the ball, putting two runners on and chasing Hockenbury from the game. Daniel Vargasvilla came in and gave up a bunt single to Chapman that loaded the bases. Justin Williams then delivered a two-run single, and Miles Hoyle followed with an RBI ground out. Once again Central had a three-run lead, this time 6-3. The Govs had an opportunity to draw closer in the bottom of the eighth when they loaded the bases with only one out. But Daniel Torrente hit into a double play that ended the threat. “All in all, it was a good year for us,” Sasser said. “This was one of my best hitting teams ever as far as home runs and hitting the ball in the gap. But I the thing I am most proud of is we’ll have a lot of guys continue their education and their baseball careers after they leave Wallace. When all is said and done, we may have eight or nine guys to sign with a four year school. That’s what junior college is all about.” Nathaniel Frazier is Sports Information Director for Wallace Community College baseball. He can be reached at NFraier@DothanEagle.com . | |
| © Wallace Community College |
