After being down 5-1 through four innings, the Evans Knights rallied back on their home field to defeat Carrollton 9-5 Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the GHSA Class AAAAAA state playoffs.
“It’s great, for me personally; it is my first time ever here,” said Evans Coach Jay Matthews. “With this many seniors, we keep telling them, ‘don’t let it be your last game.’ They got that ‘I believe’ mentality. and it’s scary when you get it. We tell them all the time, the Braves had the least odds to win the World Series last year and look who won, so you always got a chance.”
Errors would be a problem early for the Knights, as they would give up four unearned runs.
Down 5-1 after the fourth, Evans began the bottom of the fifth inning with a single by Tate Thompson and a double by Caden Strawser, causing the Trojans to bring in a new pitcher.
With the bases loaded, Ty McClintock hit an RBI single, bringing in two runs and making the score 5-3. Caleb Bennett brought in one more with an RBI single, cutting the Trojans lead to one. The Knights tied game 5-5 after a wild pitch brought in the tying run.
A sacrifice fly and a double by Cooper Serigney added two more runs to give the Knights a 7-5 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning.
In bottom of the sixth inning, the Knights added on two more runs, extending their lead to 9-5.
Despite the errors, pitcher Hunter Thompson would pitch a complete game and close the door on the Trojans.
Evans will host Pope in the quarterfinals with a doubleheader beginning at 4:30 p.m. Monday, May 9. A third game, if necessary, will be played Tuesday.
“We got to clean it up. Looking at their (Pope) scores last series, they had two run rules. They are an absolutely traditional powerhouse in this region, but we got to go play good fundamentally clean baseball to have a chance,” Matthews said. “We keep telling our guy; there’s a lot of people who don’t get the opportunity to keep practicing tomorrow, and we’re one of eight teams left, so we’re going to give it a shot.”
