Playoff baseball requires teams to be able to win in the whole range of situations: in extra innings and in back-and-forth battles, in pitching duels and in hitting contests. Alba-Golden’s bi-district win over the James Bowie Pirates exemplified this. 

The Panthers swept the doubleheader in Hooks Friday, 3-2 and 12-8.

In the opening game, Alba-Golden took a 2-1 lead into the seventh inning when a dropped third strike put the lead-off Pirate hitter on base. He was sacrificed to second and scored when a double was ripped to the left-centerfield fence.

The Panthers went down in order in the bottom of the seventh, and the game went into extra innings. James Bowie clearly had the momentum. The question was ‘Who would keep their composure?’

The Pirates led off the eighth with a single to right. Alba-Golden starter Easton Campbell (7 innings, 6 hits, 7 strike-outs, 0 walks) was spelled by Tucker Samples. 

The Panthers caught James Bowie in a steal attempt at second, and the runner never made it to scoring position. Two line drive outs – one to Ayden Blalock at second and one to Luke Jones in centerfield, ended the top half. 

Michael Lacy led-off the bottom half by lining a single into right field. He promptly stole second and advanced to third on a fielder’s choice. With one away, it was an error by the Pirate third baseman which allowed Lacy to scamper home.    

Alba-Golden had passed a critical playoff test, winning in extra innings. 

The second half of the doubleheader was not the disciplined baseball offered in the first game. This game had some crazy sequences, momentum shifts, errors and offense. 

Alba-Golden scored thrice in the second inning, taking advantage of an error and three walks. James Bowie answered with two runs in the bottom half. The Pirates went on to tie the game in the third when Alba-Golden struggled with some infield play.

James Bowie exploded for five runs in the fourth. Three Alba-Golden errors, a walk and four base hits fed the big rally.

In the last three innings, the Panthers played solid defense and chipped away at the lead. After their big fourth inning, the Pirates couldn’t get beyond second base. 

Samples made a great scoop at first to close the fifth, while in the sixth catcher Campbell threw out a steal attempt at second. And in the seventh, Mason Smith made an excellent play from his third base position to record the second out of the inning.

Smart baseball recouped the lead for Alba-Golden. In the fourth Hunter Whitecotton beat out an infield hit and ended up stealing home to begin the comeback. 

In the fifth Campbell crushed a triple off the wall to start a rally. The Panthers picked up two more runs when Cooper Christian slapped an RBI single. Luke Jones drove-in Campbell in the sixth to close the deficit to one run.

The Panthers confidently rallied in the seventh. They put five runs on the board with RBI-producing base hits by Lacy, Jones, and Whitecotton. 

After a tight first game, the Alba-Golden crew weathered a different challenge in game two – having to do more to shore-up their defense in the late innings and overcome a large deficit. The fact that the squad handled each of these challenges in order bodes well for the area round match-up. 

Alba-Golden faces Harleton in a three-game area championship series at Longview Spring Hill.

First game is Friday at 6 p.m. with the series to wrap up Saturday at 1 p.m. for one or two games as needed.