With the playoff picture beginning to crystalize some, the Columbia Academy Cougars improved their chances last week, taking two games in a three-game series with Oak Forest Academy.
The Cougars (10-8, 3-3) got the ball rolling March 29 with an end-to-end 3-2 win at home over Oak Forest, followed it with a series-clinching 5-4 win in the matinee of a doubleheader Friday and fell in the finale 5-4 in extra innings.
“It’s a huge series win,” head coach Keith Stanley said. “I’ve grown up hearing college coaches saying it’s always tough to sweep a three-game series, and I think it goes the same for high school, if not even worse for high school with pitching and having to deal with 14 and 18-year-old mindsets during varsity doubleheaders. We got the first two, really wanted three of them. I won’t say we’re happy to get the two but definitely pleased to get the two we needed to get. The third one just kind of slipped out of our grasp a little bit.”
The narrative for Cougar baseball during the early portion of the season was that CA could score runs but struggled with giving up free bases and committing errors defensively. But the script flipped in the Oak Forest series as it was the best the Cougars have played defensively all season.
“On the stat line we had some errors, but with the way our field is playing right now I wouldn’t necessarily count those as errors. I definitely think the credential for us for the week was pitching and defense,” Stanley said. “We picked it well and pitched it well all week.”
In the Game 1 victory, Logan Buckley ripped his third home run of the season, and Holdyn Sandifer plated a run with a single to lead the offense. Holton Hartzog, who has been much better on the mound lately, picked up the win, striking out five and allowing one earned run over 4 2/3 innings. Eighth-grader Roman Lawrence was electric in relief, fanning six of the seven batters he faced to earn the save.
Hays Carley led the way in the Game 2 win, going 3-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. Zach Lowery added to CA’s lead with a two-run triple, and Chandler Carver brought home a run with a single. Buckley picked up the win, striking out six and allowing four runs on four hits through five innings. Lawrence once again ended the game with style with two hitless innings of relief and two strikeouts.
Columbia Academy’s bats were stymied in the Game 3 loss, connecting for just five hits in 10 innings. Sandifer ripped a pair of doubles, though, and Owen Simmons and Buckley each had RBI singles. Simmons pitched to a no-decision, allowing four runs (one earned) in 3 2/3 innings. Lawrence took the hard-luck loss despite allowing just one run in 5 1/3 innings.
Lawrence pitched in all three games of the series and was near perfect every time out, compiling 9 2/3 innings and nine strikeouts while allowing just three hits and one run. Stanley said early in the year Lawrence was used more as a starter, but he’s the best person suited to pitch multiple innings out of the bullpen two or even three times a week.
“His week was impressive,” Stanley said. “He comes in Tuesday and slams the door, strikes out six in (2 1/3) innings. He comes in the first game Friday and did it again, slamming the door shut after Logan pitched. Then the second game on Friday wasn’t a close situation until we tied it back up and had to go into extras. He had to throw longer than we were expecting, but man, what a phenomenal job he did.”
Any pitcher doing that at any level — professional, collegiate or high school — is mightily impressive, but for an eighth grader to do something like that at the varsity level is more than unheard of; it’s unreal.
“I’ve been here seven years now, and that’s one of the better performances I’ve seen from an arm during one whole week,” Stanley said. “He goes out there and gives it his all every pitch, and it’s awesome to watch.”
While CA struggled with a .209 average over the course of the series, the Cougars came up with several timely hits despite facing a tough pitching staff. Stanley said the Yellowjackets threw several low-80s arms, and even an upper-80s arm, and they did a good job of throwing strikes early in counts and getting the Cougars to chase elevated fastballs and breaking balls in the dirt. He added he wasn’t sure if the Cougars just suffered from a mini slump, but he wants his hitters to attack better pitches early in counts to avoid having to face difficult pitches to lay off of with two strikes.
“We seem to be getting a little big at the plate with our swings, thinking we’re a power-hitting team and we’re not. We’re a backside single, backside double team that takes what the pitcher gives us. That’s the adjustments you make in high school baseball, and I hope we can make the adjustments for this coming week,” Stanley explained.
The Cougars started its second-to-last district series of the season on Wednesday at Silliman Institute, but results were unavailable at press time. They will host Games 2 and 3 Friday in a doubleheader.
Silliman Institute (14-6, 4-2) played its series with Oak Forest two weeks ago and lost two of three against the Yellowjackets with losses of 10-0 and 4-0 to go along with an outlier 16-6 victory. While it can be a dangerous game to speculate that CA should win the series against Silliman because it beat Oak Forest and Silliman lost to Oak Forest, it does provide some encouragement. Stanley said the Wildcats have a couple of quality arms that sit in the low 80s, and their ace is a tough lefty with a quality breaking ball that he can bury in the dirt well.
“We have to go into (the series) with a chip on our shoulder like we’ve done all year and try to prove we belong at the top of the district and take care of business,” he said. “I think they’re going to try to run the bases on us, so pitchers and catchers have to be aware of holding runners. If we do what I know we can do, we should be fine, but we need to be a more consistent ball club.”
The Cougars have all but clinched a playoff berth despite being fourth in the district standings. Bowling Green, who CA will play next week, is in last at 1-8, and all the Cougars need to do is win two of their final six district games to punch their ticket. There is still a lot of ground to cover, but CA does have an outside chance of finishing first. Oak Forest, who CA holds a tiebreaker over, is currently in first place at 6-3. However, winning percentage wise, Oak Forest is in a three-way tie with Brookhaven Academy and Silliman, who are both 4-2. A sweep of Silliman and Bowling Green could catapult the Cougars way up the standings with a 9-3 record, but they would need some help as Brookhaven would need to lose two of their remaining six district games because Brookhaven holds the tiebreaker over CA.
