No. 6 Legend and No. 10 Brighton baseball battle it out in thrilling playoff primer
PARKER — If Thursday’s thriller between Legend and Brighton is what games will look like when the Class 5A baseball playoffs begin, that party needs to get started.
Somehow, in eight innings – because seven wasn’t enough, these two teams put enough drama into the game to match a big league atmosphere that the Double Angel baseball complex provided.
Legend won 5-4 and rushed the field when Caleb Stubbings – pinch-running for Joey Rembisz – crossed home plate. The end result was fun for them.
For those in attendance, it was the journey that made it every bit as enjoyable.
Before a pitch was even thrown, some in the Titans crowd fought back tears as they were reminded this was coach Scott Fellers’ final home game. He’s retiring and was given a righteous sendoff.
“It made this one a little more special,” Rembisz said. “I’ve known Coach Fellers for the last four years. This is one of the best teams that he’s coached and it’s great to get this win for him.”
But whether or not the No. 6 Titans (14-5 overall) would get it was in question early. The third inning led off with with Tommy Drury hitting Jose Treto. Cody Beck advanced Treto to third on a single, but got caught making a long turn at first.
So with one out and a runner on third for the No. 10 Bulldogs (15-2), Liam Eddy came to the plate. He sat on a 2-2 pitch and sent the baseball into orbit, giving them a 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fourth, Jordan Stubbings lined a single into left field and was sacrificed over by Brody McCord. That’s Rembisz crushed one of his own to left-center. The ball went off the wall and the big man pulled into third with a RBI-triple.
He would score on the next at-bat. He would finish the day 2-for-3, adding a double to his line. But it turned out to be Jordan Stubbings that Brighton coach Ray Garza was being more careful with. He would score again in the sixth after leading the inning off with a single.
But Legend was still down a run by that point, because Eddy had ripped a RBI-triple of his own in the fifth and would also come into score.
“You tip your hat off to those two young men,” Garza said. “They have tremendous talent and you have to build around them.”
Holding that one-run lead going into the bottom of the seventh, the Bulldogs sent Treto out to try and close out the game for Javier Sanz.
But a pitching change was apparently just what the Titans needed. P.J. Ausmus led off the inning with a single – his third of the game. He advanced to second on a passed ball before Kyle Cardona drove him in with a two-out double.
Tie game.
“At that point, I knew this was our game to win,” Rembisz said.
On the mound in relief, McCord sat the Bulldogs down in order in the eighth inning and it was Rembisz coming to the plate again. He blasted another pitch to almost the exact spot he had earlier in the game and all of a sudden, the winning run sat at second with nobody out.
“I was looking for a hard ball to hit,” he said. “I was fortunate that coach gave me a green light to start the AB and luckily I got one up and in.”
Designated hitter Kody Johnson came to plate with the intention of sacrificing the runner over. Caleb Stubbings had entered the game as a pinch runner.
Johnson got the ball down, but an errant throw from Treto allowed Stubbings to trot home and the Titans cleared the dugout in bedlam.
“It ended up in our favor where he made a bad throw,” Johnson said. “I just wanted to put the ball in play and hope for the best and worked out in our favor.”
And it sent Fellers out with a memorable win. The crowd was behind him, the players were ecstatic for him and even Garza acknowledged the respect he has for him.
But he never once worried about himself. It was all about the kids.
“This is a tough group,” Fellers said. “Everyone plays hard, they love each other and we’ve done this the last three or four times in the last two weeks and it’s been great.”
For Fellers, the hope now is that they can continue to do it for the next three weeks. Thursday had the kind of amped up atmosphere that the playoffs thrive on. The fans knew it and the players knew it.
And in a week, that same atmosphere will exist, but the stakes will be much higher.
