Growing Pains: Valwood baseball swept by Maclay on Senior Night

Published 5:23 pm Friday, April 23, 2021

HAHIRA –– On a night honoring their three seniors, the Valwood Valiants (7-15, 2-7 GISA Region 3-3A) couldn’t overcome early deficits in a two-game sweep by the Maclay Marauders (17-4) on Tuesday.

In the two games, the Valiants were outscored 19-2 and with the losses, the Valiants close the regular season on a three-game losing streak.

For Maclay, Tuesday’s doubleheader pushed their winning streak to five games.

“What’s been our Achilles heel is picking up the baseball –– playing catch, catching and throwing,” Valwood head coach Robert Shipman said. “Our pitching has been OK. If we’re going to make that many errors, we’re going to have to produce a lot of offense and we simply haven’t done that. Couple that together, you’ve got a recipe for disaster and big innings where we have two outs and we should be able to close that inning out, we extend it by an error here or there and the next thing you know, the other team has five additional batters and more opportunities to score runs. Before we get to these playoffs, we have to do a better job of catching, throwing and manufacturing runs somehow.”

In Game 2, Maclay defeated Valwood 9-1 in five innings.

The game got off to a promising start for the Valiants as Mac McRae led off with a solo home run to center field to put Valwood up 1-0.

The early spark was fleeting however as Dalton Smith and Connor Hutto both struck out before senior Harrison Hamsley popped out to end the top of the first inning.

The Marauders wasted no time evening the score as Broedy Poppell belted a solo homer of his own to right field to knot the score at 1.

Following a line drive single by Ryker Chavis, the Marauders scored two at-bats later on an RBI single to left off of starter Will Vickers to go ahead 2-1.

In the top of the second, the Valiants made efforts but didn’t do much damage –– coming up with a single, a sacrifice bunt and drawing a walk, but scoring no runs in the inning.

Heading to the bottom half of the second, the Marauders quickly put themselves in position to put distance between themselves and the Valiants.

Joe Butler singled on a hard-hit ball grounder to right field, then Dylan Vielhauer drew a walk to put two men on with no outs.

On the next at-bat, Grady Brown dropped a sacrifice bunt for the first out, but not before moving Butler into scoring position at third base and getting Vielhauer to second.

Following up his first inning home run, Broedy Poppell delivered again for the Marauders with a two-run RBI single to extend the lead to 4-1.

Broedy’s brother, Ryder, kept the good times rolling for the visitors as he thumped a line drive to right field for a triple. A throwing error by Valwood third baseman (name here) allowed Broedy Poppell to score to make it 5-1.

Next up, Chavis smacked a line drive to bring Ryder Poppell around to score to put Maclay ahead 6-1.

With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the third, Maclay found home again.

This time, Chavis was hit by a pitch from Hamsley; allowing Butler to score for a 7-1 lead. On the next at-bat, Eric Parker drilled a ground ball to left field to bring in two more runs for the 9-1 final margin.

Four different Marauders had two hits each in the win. Parker picked up the win on the mound in four innings of work, striking out six batters with two walks and four hits in the nightcap.

Emory Hogan picked up the loss for the Valiants. Hogan lasted just 2 1/3 innings –– allowing 10 hits and nine earned runs with one strikeout and two walks. Hamsley came on in relief and produced three strikeouts while allowing one hit.

In terms of manufacturing runs, the Valiants have scored three runs or fewer in eight of their last nine games. On a larger scale, the team has produced three runs or fewer in 14 of their 22 games this season.

“In all honesty, it’s a little bit better than what I had thought in the beginning,” Shipman said of how the season has gone for his team. “Just knowing you’ve got 20 players, nine freshmen and three seniors and you sprinkle a few sophomores and juniors in between and not a lot of playing experience, we’re right about where we thought as a staff we were going to be.

“It’s never easy to sit there and go through it. You’re saying if you have early success in the season, guys are doing the things that are necessary to win. But in baseball, it’s the law of averages. You’re looking at your roster and saying –– and I promise I’m not making excuses –– we’re going to have some growing pains here and some growing pains over there. Overall, the law of averages is going to get you. I’m not big on trying to find a moral victory out of it. We’ve got to get better. We’ve go to catch, throw and we’ve got to manufacture runs if we’re going to be successful moving forward.”

The Valiants dropped Game 1 by a score of 10-1.

Ryder Poppell went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored to lead the Marauders. Chavis went 2-for-2 at the plate with an RBI, one run scored and two walks.

Overall, Maclay had eight hits and drew six walks in the game.

Butler picked up the win on the mound with a three-strikeout, five walk performance in three innings.

Hamsley and Greene each had a hit for the Valiants and Game 1 starter Will Vickers earned the loss in 3 2/3 innings of work –– allowing seven hits, four earned runs and five walks with three strikeouts.

Vickers, McRae and Hamsley were each honored with commemorative photos in the final home game of their careers.

After Tuesday’s doubleheader, Shipman talked about what it has meant to him to coach his group of seniors.

“Specifically, with Harrison Hamsley and Mac McRae, I’ve had them for four years,” Shipman said. “They’re great kids, really competitive. I told them at the end of the game in our meeting that anything that Valwood does from this point on, they’ve been a part of it, they’ve contributed to it and they should be proud of it. Those kids are great kids and they’ve got bright futures.

“Will Vickers, this was his first and only year here. He’s been a hoot, man. He’s been a blast. He’s been keeping the team alive. He’s probably the hype man of the team. He’s done his job. He hasn’t played a ton of baseball, but he’s done his job to help get us to where we are.”

UP NEXT

The Valiants await their matchup for the first round of the GISA state playoffs.