Malone rallies for district title

MALONE — Battling in their second epic contest in four days, Malone and Grand Ridge again found their game hanging in the balance Thursday night in the District 5 O-Zone Tournament final.

Grand Ridge pulled out the first meeting 8-7 on Monday. But it was Malone that took the one that mattered most, rallying for a 7-6 victory Thursday to win its third straight district title.

Both teams will next head to the state tournament, to be played in Marianna starting on July 11.

Zane Whittaker’s RBI single in the top of the seventh inning broke a 6-6 tie, and Scott Stephens came on in relief to close it out in the bottom of the seventh.

“We just wanted to finish it and get it done,” Malone coach Hoyt Floyd said of his team’s mentality in the seventh inning. “It was about getting that third title in a row.”

Antwan Johnson pitched the first six innings of the night to earn the victory for Malone, with Chris Greene taking the hard-luck loss for Grand Ridge despite an
excellent, complete game performance.

“I thought it was another outstanding pitching performance out of (Johnson),” Floyd said. “And Chris for Grand Ridge really pitched well, also. Both kids did a great job, and Scott Stephens did a terrific job for us in the seventh inning.”

Stephens retired Grand Ridge in order in the seventh, with the help of two fine defensive plays at second base by Tyler Henry for the first two outs.

Cade Hall came to the plate for Grand Ridge with two down, and Stephens got him to fly out into shallow center field to end the game.

“That was huge because Cade had been killing the ball all night,” Floyd said. “I was very worried about having to get him out again.”

Hall’s RBI single in the bottom of the third inning put Grand Ridge up 5-2, but Floyd said his team never got rattled in spite of the three-run deficit.

“I never saw any panic on the players’ faces. I’m not sure how the coach looked, but they looked fine,” the coach said. “It’s a testimony to these kids.

“They’ve been down a couple of times in this tournament and just came back and refused to lose. It’s really encouraging looking into the future and seeing the potential of these kids.”

Malone got a pair of runs back in the top of the fourth, with consecutive RBI singles by Harrison Floyd and Dakota Shaw to make it 5-4.

Grand Ridge appeared to have an answer when Greene and Danford opened the bottom of the fourth with singles, to put runners on first and second with no outs.

However, Antwan Johnson struck out the next two batters and got Gage Parker to ground out to second to end the threat.

Malone got the game even in the fifth, when a sacrifice fly by Zane Whittaker brought Antwan Johnson to the plate to make it 5-5.

Grand Ridge got the lead right back in the bottom of the frame with an RBI infield single by Greene to score Zane Chason.

In the top of the sixth, Malone’s Cody Henson reached second on a Grand Ridge error to start the inning, and eventually came around to score on an RBI groundout by Floyd to make it 6-6.

Grand Ridge got one runner on in the bottom of the sixth on a walk by Tyler Cloud. But Malone got out of the jam with an inning-ending double play on a ground
ball by Brandon Hobbs.

In the top of the seventh, Jackson Reddish led off with a single, then stole second base with one out.

After Matthew Jernigan popped up for the second out, Whittaker came up to bat for Malone and smacked a pitch into right field to allow Reddish to come to the plate for the winning run.

When the teams met on Monday, Grand Ridge won on a walk-off hit by AJ Johnson.

Malone won the second matchup of the teams on Tuesday, 17-7, to advance to Thursday’s title game.

Grand Ridge was forced to play Liberty County on Wednesday to make it to Thursday, and took a 7-2 victory to set up a rubber match with Malone.

With the exception of Tuesday’s game, the two teams played each other about as evenly as possible.

“Those games were practically identical,” Floyd said. “They were just two really hard-fought ballgames.

“You want to gauge yourself against the competition you play. With our games against Grand Ridge, you couldn’t have scripted it any better.”

After the game, Floyd’s players made good on a promise the coach made before the tournament — to get his head shaved if the team won district.

“It’s pretty tight,” the coach said of his new haircut. “But it will grow back. The important thing is the memories we made out there.”