A walk-off finish has the Falcons walking away with a historic baseball championship.
The Foothills Falcons scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to earn a walk-off 5-4 victory over the Holy Trinity Academy Knights and claim the High School Baseball League Tier I provincial championship in the all-Okotoks final on May 27 at Littler Field.
“It was don’t get too down on yourself, keep pushing even though their guy went out there and threw really well against us,” said Falcons catcher Adam Rowland. “We kept grinding, lengthening out the at-bats, put balls in play when we could and tried to work towards scratching across runs and getting back at them.
“Eventually we just built enough momentum to get out there and get the job done. We ran the bases well today and that’s what got us the win.”
With runners on second and third and one out in the seventh inning, Nathan McGregor stepped up to the plate for the Falcons and on a fielder's choice drove in the tying run. A throwing error on the same sequence then saw Foothills cross home plate once again to secure the one-run victory.
“It’s our last chance and we’re going to put everything we’ve got out there, all of our energy into one swing, one at-bat,” Rowland said. “We were beating them through the game, I thought mentally at least, and just pushed and pushed and finally broke through and got those runs when it mattered.”
Bergan Hall, Foothills’ starting pitcher, opened the scoring for the Comp on a wild pitch in the first inning with the Knights countering in the second on a two-RBI single by Knights starter Tristan Reynolds.
In the fifth inning, RBI knocks from the Knights’ Colton King and Jordan Szilagyi increased the advantage to 4-1.
The Falcons looked to be back within a run on a two-run home run by outfielder Jackson Holditch, only for it to be ruled a ground-rule double. The next at-bat saw Jasper deBoer pick up his teammate with a two-RBI single in the bottom of the fifth.
“We got all the runs that home run would have got,” Holditch said. “We played as a team and every out counts, one hit doesn’t change a game.
“We played really well as a team today and came home with the W.”
Rowland, one of four seniors along with Holditch, Cole Penner and Hall, tipped his cap to the composure of his younger teammates in particular.
“You couldn’t tell the difference between the mind of a Grade 12 player or the mind of a Grade 10 player,” he added. “It was really good to see everyone have that same baseball IQ and take those bases and take advantage of those situations."
Falcons coach Amron Gwilliam won the pre-game coin toss to determine home field advantage and the final at-bat in the championship with both Okotoks teams having swept their two pool games.
Foothills, the undefeated top-seed out of the West, got the better of Brooks and McCoy with the Knights overpowering McCoy and Notre Dame.
“They wanted this bad,” said HTA head coach Eric McLeod. “Losing to the Comp once before, they didn’t want to lose to them again, we were defending champs and we really wanted to take it home again especially with us hosting this tournament in front of our home fans.
“But the Comp played good as well, they’re a great team, they’ve got some wicked hitters, some good pitching and it was a top-notch ball team against a top-notch ball team and unfortunately they got the best of us at the end there.”
Reynolds, a Grade 11 student, put in a sterling performance on the mound after seeing limited action on the bump during the regular season, the coach added.
“We have 10 pitchers on the team the team so you’re trying to get everyone innings, and it was kind of a last-minute decision to throw him in there,” McLeod said. “And he did awesome, he almost could have pitched all game and strung it out, but we have some good solid arms as well.
“We gave it our all, we gave it 100 per cent all game long and it just came down to the end on something that happens all of the time and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
The title is the first provincial baseball banner for Foothills coming on the heels of narrowly missing out on advancing to the Tier I final last spring.
“It feels really good because we’re graduating and we came short last year and were really strong last year,” said Rowland, a Southern Maine Community College commit. “It means a lot more to me because this is my last year playing high school baseball before I go away to college.”
Holditch echoed the sentiment.
“It’s my last baseball game ever and to win it all as a team just means a lot,” he said.
