HARTSELLE — Unranked and long forgotten, Hartselle added another chapter to its long baseball history with an 8-5 victory over Southside-Gadsden Saturday at Reuben Sims Field in the Class 5A state semifinals.
The win sets up a championship matchup with No. 5 ranked Spanish Fort in the Class 5A championship series beginning Friday night in Montgomery.
Southside’s season ended Saturday the same way it had the last three years: with a loss to Hartselle in the Class 5A state playoffs.
Hartselle, the state’s defending state champions beat the Panthers 8-5 in the final game of a best-of-three semifinal series to earn another trip to Montgomery.
Hartselle will be seeking its eighth state championship since 1988. The Tigers have reached the final four the past three seasons.
“We’re going back to Montgomery,” said Hartselle head coach William Booth. “A lot of people said we couldn’t get back to the 5A finals, but we did it.
“We hit the ball hard all weekend and that was a big key for us.”
Hartselle started the season 1-12 after winning the state championship in 2009. But the Tigers head to Montgomery after winning 29 of their last 42 games.
Southside’s run to a state baseball championship ended Saturday the same way it had the last three years: with a loss to Hartselle in the Class 5A state playoffs. Ranked at or near the top of the 5A poll all season long, the Panthers left the bases loaded three times in the loss Saturday.
“Today just wasn’t our day,” said Southside head coach Blake Bone after the loss. “This series was just a battle pitch after pitch, inning after inning.
“Today was just Hartselle’s day.”
Southside came to Hartselle with arguably its best team in recent years. Of the Panthers’ eight seniors, seven have already signed college scholarships.
“I’m so proud of our seniors,” Bone said. “I’m so proud of what they have accomplished this year. This is a special group of kids character-wise and ability-wise.”
The two team’s split Friday’s doubleheader, with Hartselle winning the opener 11-5 with a strong pitching performance from Tres Austin.
Southside’s Bradley Raulston scattered eight hits as the Panthers beat Hartselle 6-5 to force the series to a deciding third game.
But Hartselle took control of the series early in the deciding game with a couple of pitchers – Drew Cowan and Colby Nelson – who had thrown few innings this season, especially since the playoffs started.
“We just went with the best we had left,” Booth said.
Hartselle used a five-run second inning to take a commanding lead in the third game. The Tigers used four hits in the inning.
Hartselle opened a 1-0 lead over the Panthers after five of the Tigers’ first six batters reached base. Jackson Reeves singled down the third baseline to score Logan Cain with the game’s first run.
Southside tied the game in the second with an RBI single by Kyle Chesser, but stranded three runners against Hartselle starter Drew Cowan.
The Tigers broke the game open in the second inning with five hits, including an RBI double off the fence in right-centerfield by Robby Reece.
Logan Cain also drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Cowan and Ryan Joy both drove in runs to give the Tigers a solid 6-1 advantage.
The Panthers trimmed the lead to 6-4 with three runs in the top of the third to chase Cowan from the mound.
Cowan went 2.1 innings for the Tigers before yielding to Colby Nelson in the third.
Raulston had a two-run double for Southside, while Chesser drove in another run on a groundout to first.
Joy added to the Hartselle lead when he hit a bloop single that scored Zach Letson to make it 7-4.
Nelson, making his first playoff appearance since pitching one inning against East Limestone in the second round, got out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth by getting Raulston on a groundout to second.
“Coach Booth told me there might be a possibility I would pitch in the third game,” Nelson said. “This was probably my best game of the season. I just wanted to concentrate on throwing strikes.”
Hartselle’s final run came in the sixth inning when Jackson Reeves was hit by a pitch and scored on a Southside throwing error.
Southside loaded the bases a third time in the game – with one out in the seventh – but after surrendering an RBI single to Trevor Lancaster, Nelson retired the next two hitters to end the series.
Both teams finished with 10 hits in Saturday’s game.
Southside 6, Hartselle 2
Raulston avenged a loss to the Tigers in the state playoffs on the same field a year earlier with a 6-2 win in the second game of Friday’s doubleheader.
Logan Cain hit a two-run homer for the Tigers in the fifth inning to trim Southside’s lead to 6-2, but the Tigers never got any closer despite out-hitting Southside 8-6.
Hunter McCaghren took the loss for Hartselle.
Southside scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning with four hits, including a solo homer by Zack Elkins.
Hartselle reliever Ethan Howell kept the Tigers in the game after coming on in the third inning and holding the Panthers hitless over four innings.
Andrew Hampton opened the sixth inning with a double before being stranded with a pair of strikeouts and an infield flyout.
Hartselle got singles from Reece and Reeves in the seventh before Southside ended the game with a groundout.
Hartselle 11, Southside 5
Hartselle dominated the opening game of the series with Southside with six runs in the first two innings.
Tres Austin went the distance for Hartselle to earn his fourth-straight win in the playoffs. All of Austin’s wins were complete games.
“We’ve won all four of those games and that’s all that matters,” Austin said after the win. “That means all the world to me.
“Our defense was very supportive. They dug me out of some holes with good plays behind me. That’s my team.”
Ricky Ray Clayton took the loss for Southside.
Jackson Reeves and Robby Reece had three RBIs each in the Tigers’ win.
Zach Letson and Logan Cain had three hits for Hartselle, while Dax Gillespie added two doubles.
Cain’s three-run homer in the second inning helped the Tigers to an early lead.
Hartselle had two hits in the inning and took advantage of a Southside error for the early lead.
Reeves’ bases-loaded double in the fifth inning broke the game open for Hartselle.