With wins over Edmund Burke Academy and the defending champs from Piedmont Academy, the Gatewood Gators have moved into the championship round of the GISA AA state baseball tournament.
Piedmont had defeated Gatewood 9-2 and 1-0 in last year’s state finals.
The Gators will face Terrell Academy for the state title at Grayson Stadium on May 13 with a deciding game on May 14 if necessary.
It has been a wild ride for the Gatewood Gators in the state tournament thus far.
The Gators entered the tournament as a fourth seed based on their regular season record in Class AA and wound up hosting Edmund Burke Academy in the quarterfinals.
Gatewood coach Brandon Moss and Edmund Burke head coach Jonathan Broxton were teammates during the 2015 and 2016 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, so the coaches were not strangers to one another.
The Gators knocked off the Edmund Burke Academy Spartans in game one of the quarterfinals of the GISA state baseball tournament on May 2, but Edmund Burke didn’t want to play a second game on Friday. Since Gatewood’s prom was Saturday, the two remaining games in the best of three series were postponed to Monday.
And then the rains came.
The Gators concluded the quarterfinals on May 3 but needed both games to do it, winning the clincher by a score of 6-4.
That set up a semifinals match with Piedmont Academy scheduled for May 6. But the weatherman said stormy weather was imminent, so the games were postponed until Saturday.
The storms forecasted never materialized as it turned out, but on Saturday the Cougars and Gators finally got the show on the road.
The Cougars won the first game 5-1, but Gatewood came back and won the second 5-4.
On Monday, the Gators polished off Piedmont 11-9.
The Gators got off to a sizzling start in the final game by scoring six runs in the bottom of the second.
Trace Woods got the start for Gatewood and took care of Piedmont in the first and second though he did load the bases in the second before getting flyball to right that Tanner Johnson caught.
In the bottom half, the Gators caught fire.
Trey Wiggins singled and advanced to second on an error. After Wilson Moore flied out to center, John Wallace Thompson walked and Wiggins got to third on a passed ball. Eighth grader Ben Brannen walked to load the bases. T. Johnson then drew a walk to plate the game’s first run. Caleb Riser singled to score Thompson, and Ames Johnson grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Brannen.
Walker Roberts kept things going with a singled to score T. Johnson. The Cougars brought in a new pitcher, and Gavin Fried welcomed him with a single to score A. Johnson.
Wiggins drove in the final run with a single that brought home Roberts.
Piedmont got on the board in the top of the fourth when a run scored on a sacrifice fly and scored three more in the top of the fifth to make it a two-run game.
Thompson singled to right in the bottom half and scored on a double to left by Brannen. Brannen later scored on a single by Fried to make it 8-4.
Piedmont scored to runs in the top the sixth to make a two-run game again, but Gatewood seemed to blow it open with five runs in the bottom half.
Leading by five, Wilson Moore needed but three outs to get Gatewood the the finals.
He got a long fly ball to center that looked like it might make it over the fence, but Thompson made a fine play on it for the first out.
T. Johnson caught the next rope in right, and all Moore needed was three strikes.
Unfortunately, the strike zone began to elude him.
He walked six straight and Piedmont closed to 11-9 before Moore buckled down and got a fly ball to T. Johnson to close it out.
The first game of the series had gotten off to a good start for Gatewood on Saturday when freshmen Caleb Riser led off with a home run.
But things unraveled.
The game was delayed for several minutes when one of the Gatewood players involved in a pick off play at first base got blood on his jersey and had to change into another one.
Later the home plate umpire warned both dugouts when the enthusiastic chatter from the players devolved into something the umpire regarded as taunting.
Piedmont Academy wound up winning the game 5-1, but Gatewood came back to even the series in the nightcap.
With a runner on second and third in the top of the first, Moore singled to drive in A. Johnson to give the Gators a 1-0 lead.
The Cougars tied the game in the bottom of the second and took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third.
Both teams were rather quiet in the fourth, but Piedmont added two more runs when David Bishop homered to left in the bottom of the fifth with a runner on.
But Gatewood tied things up in the top of the sixth, and it started with a hit batsman.
Bishop hit Moore and then walked Thompson. Both runners advanced on wild pitch but two strikeouts later it looked like Gatewood might strand both runners.
But Riser then drew a walk to load the bases, and Piedmont brought in a new pitcher.
His control wasn’t much better.
He walked A. Johnson which forced home Moore. Then he walked Roberts to bring home Thompson.
The Cougars went to the well again and brought in a third pitcher. He hit Fried and the game was tied as Riser scored.
Roberts struck out the side in the bottom half and Gatewood went down in order in the top of the seventh.
Wilson Moore came on to pitch for Gatewood in the bottom of the seventh. He walked a batter, but Riser later threw him out trying to steal and Walker retired the side with another strikeout to send the game into extra innings.
T. Johnson walked to lead off the eighth and advanced to third on a single to center by A. Johnson.
Johnson scored the deciding run on a ground ball by Roberts that turned into a double play but not before Johnson scored the run.
Moore struck out the side in the bottom half to keep Gatewood’s chances of winning a state title alive.