Last Inning Heroics Lead to Another McWhaley Win!

Donn Quixote
6-25-09

It’s a day dream that runs in the minds of all young baseball players; the home team is down a couple of runs in the final inning of the championship game. With two outs in already recorded and he winning run on 1st base, the batter digs into the batter’s box and nervously awaits the first pitch. He sends a shot into the outfield and the runner on first sprints around the bases to score the winning run. Game over, the championship is theirs and the day dreamer is the hero of the game.

McWhaley was faced with a similar situation, but it wasn’t for the championship. It was more for pride for a few of the McWhailers than anything else. Last night, McWhaley faced off against Young Clement & Rivers (YCR) - former stomping grounds for one Randell “Slim Shady” Stoney, Jr. Slim Shady doesn’t play on the team, but a couple of the BWPH Lions work with him so they wanted to record this win for him. The rest of the team wanted to win because it sure beats losing.

McWhaley won the coin toss and elected to bat last in the game. Unfortunately, McWhaley was missing a couple of key players – Short Stop Jay Alexander and utility man, Dawes Cooke so Capitan Donn Ilagan and Capitan Jim Trabert had to switch up a few playing positions to fill in the gaps.

The McWhaley defense was a bit shaky throughout the whole game and YCR took full advantage of the soft defense and scored run after run with every error that was made. YCR had enough people to field two teams and they threw all they had at McWhaley. Inning after inning, McWhaley tried to work their way up the scoreboard, but the bats weren’t working the same as they did against The Fighting Fabers just a week prior. No matter how hard they tried, McWhaley could never take the lead in the game.

In the top of the 7th inning, McWhaley’s defense woke up and had a decent showing capped off by a 5-4-3 double play. [Jay Harper to Graham Ervin to Donn Ilagan] After the inning was over, McWhaley still found themselves trailing in the game, but this time they were down to their last at bat.

With the score YCR 10 – McWhaley 8, 3rd Baseman, Jay Harper, stepped into the batter’s box and led off the inning with a hot shot to Right Center field. He turned on the jets and tried to stretch out his 4th in the park home run of the season. As he rounded third, the throw from the outfield hit the glove of the awaiting YCR player who had positioned himself for an easy tag at home plate. As the YCR player swooped his arm around to apply the tag, Harper instinctively jumped over the glove and landed squarely on home plate making the score YCR 10 – McWhaley 9.

YCR recorded the first out from a lazy pop up to third from the next batter. Left Fielder, Bryant “Nails” Pearson, was up after that and hit a single to get on base. Left Center Fielder, Dain Reardon, managed to hit another single that sent the tying run to third base making Reardon the winning run.

Short Stop, Andre Ilagan, stepped up to the plate, dug in, and eyed the field trying to pinpoint where he wanted to hit the ball. The day dream so many young baseball players have in their minds was happening to him at that very moment. He shook off the first pitch and as the second pitch crossed the plate, he blasted it into deep Right Center field allowing Pearson and Reardon to score. Just like that, the game was over and McWhaley recorded their 3rd win of the season with a score of 10-11.

When asked about his winning hit, Andre Ilagan only had this comment to make, “I needed to do SOMETHING to make up for all of the errors I recorded at short stop.” Somehow, Donn Ilagan was actually available for comment on the game. “He’d [Andre] better be lucky I threw a good pitch for him to hit.” “I usually throw him junk in instances like that.” He added.

Even though their defense was a little shaky all game, both Donn and Jim were pleased with the way the team played and grabbed another “W.”

McWhaley’s next game is against the reigning champs of the Charleston Lawyer’s Softball League – Nelson Mullins. The game will be played in West Ashley and game time is at 6:30.


Last Night’s Line Up:

3rd Base – Jay Harper
2nd Base – Graham Ervin
Left Field – Bryant “Nails” Pearson
Left Center Field – Dain Reardon
Short Stop – Andre Ilagan
1st Base – Donn Ilagan
Right Center Field – Jim Trabert
Right Field - Blake McKie
Short Out Field – Melanie Mason
Catcher – Karen Clark