Manny Velazquez just needed one more out. The young man who had pitched just four innings the entire season had a chance to go the distance in Hixson’s biggest game of the year, and was protecting a slim two-run lead with runners on second and third. The senior shortstop had been dotting the zone with strikes all night, and he just needed to find a way to turn Signal Mountain's Hunter Davis into out number 21. His coach had just made a visit to the mound, and had shown his faith in Velazquez by leaving him out there to get the last outs.
“I just said that we have to keep the double play in order and keep getting outs,” his coach Colton Green said.
“We didn’t plan on throwing him all seven, because he’d only thrown four all season because of some arm issues. We just wanted to shorten the game and to keep getting outs.”
And so Velazquez leaned back and popped in one more good throw. Davis seemed to make good contact, but as the ball carried further and further into the outfield, it became apparent the ball was destined to fall gently into the waiting glove of right fielder Cole Shackleford. Manny’s teammates mobbed him seconds later, as Hixson had just beaten Signal Mountain in a double header to clinch the divisional championship. The first game had ended 6-3, and the second now stood 5-3.
“It felt good, and the adrenaline just kicked in at the right moment, and I was just throwing strikes,” Velazquez said. “My teammates backed me up, and we got some clutch hits and that just pumped me up even more.”
The Wildcats got out to an almost-immediate lead in the first game. After Signal’s Carson Johnson allowed the first two batters to reach base, up stepped Kane Johnson, who had just walked off the Wildcats against Hixson with a three run blast in the last game. On the first pitch he saw, Johnson pulled the ball over the leftfield wall to give the Wildcats the 3-0 lead at the end of the first inning.
“Last night we were at two outs and nobody on, and then Kane got us a three run homer to get us here,” coach Green said. “Every time we play Signal Mountain, whether it’s here or there (at Hixson), it’s a battle, it’s a three hour dogfight. They’re a great team and to beat them twice in a season, let alone one day, is a tough task.”
Signal Mountain answered in the bottom of the inning when shortstop Ben Timblin, who went 2-4, lined a ball into center field and drove Carter Giles in. With Sam Witherspoon scoring on a wild pitch in the bottom of the second, the host team seemed to have both the momentum and support from their half of the crowd. Hixson came back in the fourth to get the lead to two though, with AJ Wild roping a single into center and driving in leadoff hitter and future pitching hero Velazquez in from third.
The always dangerous Signal Mountain continued to apply pressure, with Johnson not allowing any runs in either the fifth or sixth innings. But after Giles homered to deep left to get the Eagles back within a run, Hixson reliever Landon Roden used a variety of breaking pitches to hold the opponents hitless in the final three innings. Meanwhile, Wildcat third baseman Bradley Dosset smashed a two run home run to left to essentially ice the first game at 6-3 in the top of the seventh inning.
So in came Velazquez to pitch the second game, and his coach probably hoped for three good innings from his starting shortstop at the most. Instead he was locked in from the very beginning, holding Signal Mountain scoreless with a variety of pitches and seemingly most-comfortable throwing inside. After putting two men on to start the inning, Velazquez began mowing down Signal’s batters, allowing only two singles through the first four innings.
He was aided by two early Hixson runs in the bottom of the first inning. First baseman Cameron Butler made solid contact on an early Braden Wolfard offering and laced it into left field. Velazquez and Kane Johnson, Hixson’s two most dangerous bats, had already gotten on base and thus were in perfect position to cross home plate after Butler’s hit.
“When we got those two runs, I felt so much more comfortable on the mound,” Velazquez said. “It’s just a relief to have a lead, and to know you can rely on your teammates to help like they did in this game.”
But just as things looked to be all sunshine and rainbows for the Wildcats, things momentarily unraveled. Hixson had the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth with two outs, and senior AJ Wild spoiled the chance at turning the game into a rout when he grounded out on the first pitch he saw. And then in the top of the fifth, Wolfard and Timblin singled to center back to back to drive in two runs that tied the game.
Then came the bottom of the sixth inning, when Corey Satterfield’s line drive to right drove in Jase Moses. The pinch-runner dove head-first into home, and slid around an attempted tag in order to score.. Dust clouded the air as the umpire called him “safe.” A few batters later, AJ Wild came back up to the plate with a chance to, once again, blow the game open with a runner on first and second. On the third pitch of the at bat, Wild drove the ball into right field and got one runner across.
An ecstatic Hixson supporter section cheered even louder when a wild pitch allowed Velazquez to race home, and Hixson now led a stunned Signal Mountain 5-2 going into the top of the seventh. Velazquez, who had defied all reasonable expectations by still being in the game, gave up a single and then hit a batter to put runners on to start his last inning.
After forcing a flyout to Shackleford, Timblin doubled to left and got one of Signal's runners across home plate. Velazquez struck Wolfard out looking with a nasty inside pitch that froze the great hitter. And then with two outs, he got Hunter Davis to fly out to right to finalize Hixson’s improbable two-game sweep.
“I’ll always remember this family that we have, and this bond that we have,” Velazquez said. “I’ll remember this bond and this team for the rest of my life.”
LINESCORES
Game One
HIXSON 300 100 2 – 6 10 1
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN 110 010 0 – 3 5 0
Tobias, Roden (5) and Satterfield; Johnson, Anderson (7) and Farr.
Game Two
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN 000 020 1 – 3 8 1
HIXSON 200 003 x – 5 6 1
Wolfard, Timblin (6) and Farr; Velazquez and Johnson.