By PATRICK CASEY
The South Walton baseball team appeared poised to capture their first playoff win in the sport in school history, holding a 5-2 lead over Liberty County after four innings, when disaster struck the Walton County squad to the tune of five runs in the top of the fifth inning and an eventual 7-5 loss to the Bulldogs in a Region 2, Class A semifinal.
Liberty County sent 11 batters to the plate in that frame, using five walks, two singles and an interference call that was reversed to keep the Bulldogs at-bat going to pick up the win.
Senior Dillon Bates seemed to be in control for most of the first four innings but in the fifth he walked three batters while recording two outs before Gunter Barber and Brady Peddie both singled to tie the game. A walk to Ken Thompson re-loaded the bases and chased Bates from the mound as head coach Nick Borthwick summoned Adam Richards from third base. Richards walked Tanner Young on a 3-2 pitch to force in the go-ahead run and Bailey Singletary’s chopper to third was booted to allow another run to score. One of the umpires then called Thompson out for interfering with the play at third but Bulldogs manager Tim Davis appealed to the crew to re-examine the call. After several minutes of discussion, the call was reversed much to the dismay of the largest crowd to witness a baseball game at South Walton High School in school history. Richards managed to get Brody Holland to strike out to end the frame but the damage was fatal to the Seahawks cause.
Senior Micah McCaskill took over on the mound for Liberty County as he pitched the final three innings, striking out six of the 11 batters he faced while allowing two walks but no hits to move the visiting team into the Region Final and a rematch with district foe Bozeman for a trip to the Final Four.
Early on the Seahawks had the game going their way. Austin Garofalo led off the contest with a home run to leftfield, likely becoming the first-ever Walton County baseball player to hit a home run in his team’s first-ever playoff at-bat. Stanford Beauchamp and Dillon Bates followed with singles of their own and Chase Miles delivered a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead. Richards would later single to plate the final run of the first inning as the host squad held a 3-0 lead.
Dillon Bates needed only four pitches to get out of the first inning but the Bulldogs came back with two runs of their own in the second. Alex Gonzalez walked to start the rally with Peddie and Thompson following with doubles. Tanner Young added a single for the final hit of the inning as the Bulldogs trimmed the lead to 3-2.
The Seahawks added two runs in the third inning with two-out singles by Hunter Crawley and Richards to go with back-to-back errors in the infield to give the squad a 5-2 cushion.
Unfortunately for South Walton, the top of the fifth turned the momentum and brought the Seahawks season to a close with a 20-8 record.
Team Notes: The game marked the final contest for seniors Dillon Bates, Lars Losee and Stanford Beauchamp. Peddie, a freshman, had two hits and drove in three runs for Liberty County, which used three pitchers in the contest as Gonzalez, the starter, recorded only two outs while facing eight batters to get chased from the game in the first inning. Senior Bailey Singletary took over and got the next 10 outs before McCaskill entered the contest in the bottom of the fifth. Liberty County holds an 8-4 mark against South Walton in varsity baseball.