Providence Christian falls in Class 3A state semifinal opener to Bayside Academy

Bayside Academy’s Josh Gunther threw a five-inning no-hitter in a 10-0 win in the opener of the Class 3A baseball semifinal series on the PCS campus, but Providence rallied in the final inning of the second game of the doubleheader to tie it before falling 5-4 on a walk-off home run in the bottom half of the inning.

“What we looked like from game one (of the season) to what we looked like in game 30, it was honestly the biggest jump I’ve ever seen from a team,” Providence coach Casey Smith said. “That takes senior leadership bringing us along and playing the game the right way. They didn’t play perfectly, but they played as hard as they could every day, and everybody did.”

They certainly battled to the end.

With Providence, the designated visitor for Game 2, trailing 4-2 going to the top of the seventh, the Eagles’ Jake Smith launched a long, long home run over the left-center field fence off reliever Gatlin Pitts to make it a one-run game.

Clark Crowder then was hit with a pitch, but was picked off first base for the first out of the inning with Abe Chancellor at the plate. Chancellor then doubled over the third base bag to keep the Eagles’ hopes very much alive.

Reed Linder then connected on a pitch and ripped it past the centerfielder for an RBI double to tie the score at 4-4.

Pitts then rallied on the mound to get a strikeout and groundout to escape any further damage and then dramatically ended it in the bottom of the inning when he blasted a one-out homer against the scoreboard behind the right field fence against Chancellor, who came on to pitch in relief of starting Harrison Mims in the fifth inning.

Bayside improved to 27-7 and advances to the championship series next week in Montgomery to face Phil Campbell, while Providence ends its season at 24-12.

Providence loaded the bases in the first inning with nobody out but didn’t manage a run.

Leadoff batter Smith reached when his high fly ball to right field appeared to get lost in the sun by the fielder and it went off his glove. Crowder then reached on a bunt and Chancellor walked to load the bases for Linder.

But starting pitcher Brody Swindle got two strikeouts, and on the second one, Chancellor was caught off first base and catcher Robert Rucando fired down to first and the tag was applied in time for the third out of the inning.

Bayside then went to work offensively in the bottom of the inning to plate two runs, though it appeared to be five before three were wiped off the scoreboard.

After an RBI double by Rucando and an RBI single by Cade Morris, Jake DeValk launched a towering three-run homer with two outs over the center field fence.

But those three runs would soon be wiped off the scoreboard after Providence coach Casey Smith came out to challenge and the home plate umpire acknowledged that the first runner in on the home run didn’t touch home plate, thus was ruled out once Smith appealed.

Smith said a fan alerted him that the runner missed home plate.

“I’ll be honest, he hits it and I’m charting it and thinking about the next play and actually I had a parent come to the fence and say he missed home plate and it wasn’t even close,” Smith said. “I went out there and the umpire actually looked at me and he just smiled when I asked him.

“For the umpire to have the guts to see that and call that says a lot about what kind of umpire he is.”

Matthew Morris led off the Providence second with a double down the left field line and went to third on a wild pitch with nobody out. However, Swindle got a foul out to first base and two strikeouts to end the threat and the inning.

Providence evened things up in the third inning. After Crowder was hit by a pitch with one out and advanced to second on a wild pitch, Chancellor sent a grounder to third that he beat out, plus the throw went past first allowing Crowder to score, cutting the lead to 2-1.

Chancellor went to second on the throwing error and to third on a wild pitch. Linder then hit a bloop fly that dropped into shallow center field and Chancellor scored to make it 2-2.

Bayside loaded the bases in the bottom of the third with one out, but Mims came up huge with two straight strikeouts to get out of the inning.

The Admirals took the lead in the fourth when Collins Terry singled past third base with one out to score Wil King, who had walked, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and stole third.

Swindle then sent a deep sacrifice fly to right field to bring in another run in making it 4-2 before Providence rallied.

The Eagles will lose four key seniors from the team – Chancellor, Morris, Linder and Crowder.

“They were really all huge,” Smith said of them.

Smith took quite a while with this team in the outfield after the game and is optimistic about the young players who will be returning.

As the team excited the field, the many Providence fans in attendance fittingly gave them a nice ovation.

Bayside Academy 10, Providence Christian 0: Josh Gunther pitched a five-inning no-hitter as Bayside Academy downed Providence Christian 10-0 in the first game of the Class 3A semifinal baseball series on the PCS campus Friday night.

While Gunther, a sophomore, displayed pin-point pitching, he also got some terrific plays in the infield.

In the bottom of the second inning, Matthew Morris sent a shot down the first base line that first baseman Collins Terry dove and made a great play on. He then beat Morris to the bag for the third out of the inning.

In the fourth, Jake Smith hit a sizzling grounder that shortstop Gatlin Pitts dove to stop, then quickly got to his feet and threw on to first just in time to get a hustling Smith.

The Eagles did get their first base runner of the game later in the inning when Abe Chancellor walked, stole second and got to third when a pickoff attempt at second went into the outfield.

Reed Linder then reached on an error at third base on a chopper that the fielder wasn’t able to make a play on. Gunther then got a groundout to end the inning.

Gunther recorded four strikeouts in the game.

While Providence couldn’t generate any offense, Bayside put three runs on the scoreboard in the first inning, one in the second and six in the third to get enough runs for the mercy rule to be in affect after five innings.

In the first, Bayside managed three runs despite only one hit leaving the infield.

Leadoff batter Wil King reached on an infield hit and was moved over on a sacrifice bunt from Gunther. After a groundout, Terry reached on an error and King scored for the first run of the game.

Brody Swindle then reached on an infield hit before Cade Morris rippled a single down the right field line to bring in two more runs for the early 3-0 advantage.

Bayside added a run in the second when King reached on an error, moved to second and third on wild pitches, and scored with two out when Robert Rucando reached on an infield hit when his hard grounder went off the glove of the shortstop and the throw was late to first base to make it 4-0.

In the third, Bayside completely put it away.

The Admirals’ Morris led off the inning with a home run over the centerfield fence. A hit batsman, infield hit and walk then loaded the bases. King was hit by a pitch on the next at-bat to bring in another, making it 6-0.

Gunther then helped himself with a double deep into left field to bring in two more runs in making it 8-0.

After Linder got two straight strikeouts, Swindle reached on an infield hit to bring in another run. With Morris at the plate and runners on first and third, a wild pitch allowed Gunther to score in making it 10-0.

Linder only allowed an infield hit to King in the fourth inning and Samuel Farris pitched the fifth inning for the Eagles, allowing just a single to Swindle.

For the game, Linder allowed 11 hits and struck out three.