The sixth inning just did not seem to end for the Reeltown baseball team.
After holding a two-run lead over Charles Henderson through the first five innings, things started to crumble heading into the sixth, eventually leading to a 9-2 loss for Reeltown.
“I thought we played five innings of really good baseball,” Reeltown coach Matt Johnson said. “And then, we kind of fell apart there in the sixth inning. We made some very, very costly mistakes and lost focus there for a little while.”
The bats for the Rebels came out on fire with Hagan Lewis and JaMarkius Smith each picking up a single in their first at-bats with it eventually being capped off with a Smith score. They added one more score thanks to a single by Xander Johnston to bring in Brody Smith in the top of the fourth.
From that point on, it became the Trojans’ game.
Charles Henderson tied it up in the bottom of the fifth inning due to some pitching miscues. Hagan Lewis, who had started the game on the mound and saw much success, started to pick up walk after walk, leading Jonson to make a switch to Hutson Lewis in the bottom of the sixth inning.
The walks continued, paired along some wild pitches allowed Charles Henderson to not only secure the lead but soar into it. In just the sixth inning alone, Charles Henderson scored seven runs and cemented a spot in the Slap Out Wood Bat Classic championship games.
The Rebels had their backs against the wall from the jump, competing against schools at least three classification above them. However, in Johnson’s eyes it does not matter because it’ll only help them get to where they want to reach.
“That's our philosophy, we want to play to a standard, so we play up all year long and the tournament was no different,” Johnson said. “This is for us to do what we want to do and get to where we need to get to. We feel like that's what we need to do. It's not about wins and losses, it's about growth and getting better; iron sharpening iron, you know, the whole deal. For us to do that, we try to play the best competition we can, and that's anywhere regardless of the classification.”
Reeltown has had a hectic non-area slate but will kick off Class 2A Area 6 action on Thursday against Loachapoka. All Johnson wants to see from his squad is for them to hit their stride to carry that momentum into the playoffs.
“We're coming down to the stretch where we need to start peaking at the right time, and we're getting to that point,” Johnson said. “I saw a lot of growth this week during the tournament. We played Montgomery Academy earlier in the week and played a great game. Thursday against Charles Henderson played a great game yesterday (against Wetumpka) and for the most part, played a good game (Saturday) other than one inning. So we're starting to take those steps in the right direction. Now, we just got to get there and be consistent.”