BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — Just three days removed from a roller-coaster 7A quarterfinal win over No. 3 Enterprise High School, Auburn High School’s baseball team faced a potential trap series.
But if the No. 5 Tigers (31-12) were ever ripe for an emotional letdown, they never showed it in a 10-5 and 4-2 semifinal sweep over area rival Central High School (28-19) on May 15 at Cimo Field.
With the victory, AHS punched its ticket to the 7A state championship series, where it will face No. 2 Hewitt-Trussville (32-9) in Oxford on Thursday, May 21, and in Jacksonville on Friday, May 22.
Across the two games, the Tigers controlled virtually every aspect. AHS batted .382 as a team, turned a double play against just three errors and allowed only 17 Red Devils on base in 14 innings.
As a longtime assistant coach at AHS, Tigers head coach Tommy Carter said his team was well aware of the program’s storied history.
He added that his players were more than capable of putting ink to paper in their own chapter that is this season.
“It’s just unbelievable, I don’t know, really, what to feel,” Carter said. “We sit in our locker room, and we have several state championship trophies that we look at every day and celebrate those in the past [who] have been successful, got a state championship and brought it home to Auburn. And the photos in there, we look at them every day. Each year is a different story for each team, and it’s fun to try to figure each team out. We just talk about, ‘This is your year, write your story.'”
Although the Tigers’ proficient batting order powered them in Game 1 against CHS, junior ace Lawson Hare stole the show in the nightcap against the Red Devils.
In seven innings, the right-hander gave up six hits and two earned runs while walking one and striking out seven.
After being able to pitch just two innings in the quarterfinals due to severe cramping, Hare drank electrolyte beverages until he “hadn’t peed yellow in a while.” That strategy more than paid off.
“When I let that pitch go, I saw it, and I was kind of blacked out a little bit,” Hare said. “There [were] little lights flashing, and I couldn’t see every five seconds, but it’s awesome. I love it. Still got butterflies thinking about it, but hopefully we’re not done.”
Hare said being fresh, as well as having a sound defense behind him, allowed him to focus on taking the game by the horns with his arm.
“It’s a blast and so fun just going out there stress-free and just knowing I’m prepared and ready to do it,” Hare said. “I want to take it all by myself. I mean, it’s just the type of person I am, I want to do it myself. But it’s a team effort, and I got a bunch of good plays for me in the field [that] got the job done.”
Game 1
AHS needed only one inning to set the tone as Angelo Santiago scored from second on Hare’s single to left field, and Brady Sack came home from third after advancing on a wild pitch when Antwane Daniels rolled a grounder near second base. Hare then punctuated the three-run frame with a straight steal of home during an attempted throw to second.
However, CHS drew even in the top of the second after Elijah Baldwin grounded out and scored Leland Stanford from third, Andrew Carrero scored from second on Jaylen Carter’s ground-ball single to right field and Capps Burkes followed home from third on Carter Gilley’s line-drive single to right field.
The tie did not last. In the next frame, Bryson Sheppard lined a double to center field, plating Carter Chambley from third. Sack’s sacrifice fly, also to center field, later brought Santiago in from third for a 5-3 advantage.
Daniels made it 6-3 in the bottom of the third the long way around after he singled, stole second, advanced to third on a groundout and scored when Dean Murray’s grounder rolled to the shortstop.
With the game still close, the Tigers blew it open in the bottom of the fourth. Hare’s line-drive single to center scored both Santiago from third and Sheppard from second, and two batters later, Daniels turned on a pitch and sent it out to left for a two-run home run that put the Tigers up 10-3.
The Red Devils tried piecing together a late rally in the top of the seventh after Carter’s line-drive double to left field scored Jake Lech from second. Carter himself advanced to third on another wild pitch and came home on Cam Norton’s groundout to second base, setting the final at 10-5.
Ethan Wade was steady from the start, holding CHS to three earned runs over six innings before giving way to Max Autrey in the seventh.
Logan Brock took the loss for the Red Devils, giving up six earned runs on six hits over the first two innings before Juan-Valentine Gil-Rodriguez took over in the third.
Hare and Daniels combined for six hits and six RBIs in the middle of AHS’s order, and Santiago reached base in all four of his at-bats from the leadoff spot.
Carter led the Red Devils with three hits and two RBIs.
Game 2
The Tigers struck first in the top of the second. Murray scored from third on Wilson Foster’s sacrifice fly to left field for a 1-0 lead.
AHS doubled the lead in the top of the fourth, when Daniels came home from third on Murray’s sacrifice fly to left.
CHS got on the board in the bottom of the fifth. Tyler Caldwell scored from second on Carrero’s line-drive single to right field to make it 2-1.
The Tigers added an insurance pair in the top of the seventh. Santiago scored from third and Sheppard from second on Sack’s hard ground-ball single to left, stretching the lead to 4-1.
The Red Devils answered in the bottom half. With two outs, Baldwin lined a hard grounder through to right field, scoring Stanford from third to cut the deficit to 4-2. CHS’s rally ended on a ground ball to shortstop Britt Farr, who flipped to Sheppard at first for the final out.
Hare went the distance for the Tigers, allowing six hits and two runs over seven innings with seven strikeouts and one walk.
Caldwell took the loss for CHS in five innings of work, charged with two runs on six hits while striking out two and walking two.
Sack provided the pop from the No. 3 spot in the AHS order, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs to lead a nine-hit Tigers attack. Daniels and Sheppard each added multiple hits.
For the Red Devils, Stanford led the way at the plate, going 2-for-3. Carrero and Baldwin drove in CHS’s only runs back-to-back in the lineup. The Red Devils played clean defense without committing an error, and Hayden Jones led the way with eight plays.
