FREDERICKTOWN – Sophomore Xavier Mullins hit a two-run, game-winning single in the final at-bat to lift the Fredericktown baseball team to its fourth consecutive district title.
None of the other three came close to this one. The host Freddies walked off on Thursday, May 27, with a suspense-filled, dramatic, come-from-behind 4-3 victory in the bottom of the seventh inning, defeating a very tough Amanda-Clearcreek team in Division III play.
Down 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning, second-seeded Fredericktown got a runner on when Ty Hatfield reached on an error by the third baseman. Teammate Caleb Sheriff drove home Hatfield with a single to right. Kaid Carpenter followed with a single to put runners at first and second. A double steal moved them to second and third.
Then Mullins stepped to the plate and delivered the game-winning single to right field. The hit scored Sheriff and Carpenter, unleashing a wild celebration from the Freddies’ first base dugout and a dog pile on the field.
“I just tried to stay as calm as I could in there,” Mullins said. “Once Ty got on base, that’s when I thought we would end this with a win.”
Sheriff finished 3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI, and Carpenter went 2-for-4 with a run.
Fredericktown seemed to be frustrated at every turn, coming close to scoring earlier in the game. That included the fifth inning, when it looked like the Freddies might break it wide open. That is, until Brady Lester, who had tripled, got picked off third. Mullins hit a powerful drive to the deepest part of center, only to see it run down by Amanda’s Grant Guller, who made a great over-the-shoulder catch on the warning track to end the inning.
“That centerfielder,” Fredericktown coach Ryan Hathaway said. “Incredible. That was one of the best catches I’ve ever seen in high school. To be going back over your shoulder like that. They kept taking the momentum from us, and we were just trying to sustain that positive attitude.”
Sheriff, who walked and stole second and third, scored the only run of that inning on a Trevor Jobes RBI single.
Somehow the Freddies continued to stay focused, keeping the sixth-seeded Aces off the board after giving up a three-run third inning; when Guller, Hunter Matheny and Trenton Hedges scored. Matheny finished with two hits in three at-bats.
“We stayed positive,” Sheriff said. “We didn’t get down on each other and yell at each other over mistakes we made. We kept everybody positive — especially the seniors. We stayed calm, believed in our ability and we ended up winning the game at the end.”
On the mound, Carpenter tossed a five-hitter over the full seven innings for the Freddies. He gave up only one walk and fanned five batters. More importantly, he was ahead in the count on most batters — especially early in the game.
Amanda starting pitcher Ryan Chambers spread out nine hits over six innings, striking out three and walking two.
The Freddies were looking to wear down Chambers, who was lifted for Peyton Cassley in the seventh with one out. Cassley was charged with the Freddies’ winning run and took the loss for the Aces.
“We knew it was our game,” Carpenter said. “We wanted it more than they did, and that’s how it came out.”
The Freddies move on to the regional semifinal round where they will meet Barnesville on Thursday at Mount Vernon.
But it will be hard to top this one.
“This is the best game that I’ve been a part of in the six years that I’ve been here,” Hathaway said. “Just in terms of the atmosphere and the fight in the kids. Hats off to Amanda. I mean, they played lights out, but we just found a way.”
