SPANISH FORT, Alabama—Though some north of Baldwin and Mobile counties may dispute, for many the 5A state baseball championship was unofficially settled last night when the Nos. 1 and 2 ranked 5A clubs—Spanish Fort and Faith Academy—met on the Hill at SFHS for a packed-house, playoff showdown Friday night.

And although it did not go three games, it went two and a half with Spanish Fort winning Game 1, 6-0, in seven innings then dodging a third all-or-nothing game at Faith with a 3-1 extra-inning home victory in the night cap.

Game 2 was a classic Toros versus Rams matchup taking the big-league distance of nine innings to decide. Both teams scored a run in the third inning, but not again until the top of the ninth. Both starting pitchers Jesse McCord of SF and Michael Jolly of FA went the distance tossing 29 combined strike outs (Jolly 15, McCord 14). The Toros improved to 34-6 with McCord’s seventh (7-0) win of the year. The junior right hander pitched a four hitter over nine complete.

The Toros out hit the Rams 6-4 in Game 2, but runs were hard to come by as both defenses tightened up after a total of five errors in Game 1.

“Defense was huge tonight,” said Spanish Fort coach Brent Boyd. “We had chances for runs and they did too that were cut down at the plate by some great throws. There were great plays in the infield and outfield by both sides. We knew it would be like that—down to the wire. Jesse did a great job. Didn’t get rattled, he just got stronger and stronger as the night went on.”

One of those Game 2 plays was a squeeze-play by Faith to win the game in the bottom of the seventh. Faith’s Morgan Richburg laid down a bunt with Ram teammate Jonathan Brown charging home, but Toro third baseman Reagan Eubanks scooped up the ball and made a quick throw to catcher Brian Lane for the tag. Two innings later SF senior Tyler Trammell put the three-time-defending state champion Toros back ahead for good with an RBI single in the top of the ninth to score Will Luft who led off the inning and reached on an error. Rob Perteet then scored on another error.

“Reagan made a great play there.” Boyd said. “Could have been the game and we’d be heading to Mobile tomorrow. But we stuck around and came through a little later. Tyler came through as usual. The seniors were the key like they have been all year. I thought both games would be like this (second) one, tight. So we prepared with that in mind. I wanted the seniors to be in the pressure situations. Most of them are the ones with the rings and they want another. Most of the younger ones have not been in games of this magnitude. But, really, they all stepped up big tonight.”

Former Daphne, now Faith, head coach Lloyd Skoda felt his seniors stepped up too. But came in a just short of a win to force Game 3. Jolly is also a senior.

“I’m proud of our guys,” Skoda said. “This was two good teams playing. We’ve got a good team. They’ve got a good team. Michael pitched very well for us. Kept them off balance giving us a chance at the plate but we couldn’t get around the bases for him. It was really an amazing job by both guys. That third baseman made a good play.”

Righthander Gunner Hendrix pitched a complete game shutout in Game 1. The sophomore allowed seven hits, passed three and struck out four. Faith senior Caleb Lopes (9-1) suffered his only loss of the season after the Toros totaled 13 hits. Both defenses erred with the Rams making three errors, two resulting in SF runs while Spanish Fort got away with two miscues unscathed.

“Gunner did a good job for us,” Boyd said. “Hit his spots. Had his good stuff working. We had some mistakes on defense, but were fortunate they didn’t hurt us. We were able to capitalize on theirs and I think the cushion was good for Gunner as well.”

Luft and Perteet each doubled in a pair of teammates in the opener. McCord added one with an RBI single. Lane stole home on a double steal bluff with Trammel taking second.

Lopes had four hits and stole three bases (third base twice) on the night. FA left nine runners on base, the Toros stranded five.

The 1-1 tie in the third inning of Game 2 was set when Trammell scored on a fielder’s choice by Hendrix followed by Lopes who scored on an SF error forced by one of his steals of third after Brown had sacrificed him to second.

Spanish Fort will play at Brookwood or host McAdory next week in round three of the 5A state playoffs pending the third-game result Saturday afternoon.