Dothan Post 12 falls in state title game

TROY — Needing two wins over Dothan Post 12 to win the state championship, Tuscaloosa Post 34 kept finding answers on Sunday at Riddle-Pace Field.

Tuscaloosa scored twice in the eighth inning and four runs in the ninth inning of Game 1 to win 7-4, then erupted four more times in the eighth to break a 9-all tie — after Dothan had scored four runs in the top of the inning to erase a 9-5 deficit.

Post 34’s 13-9 victory sent them to the American Legion District Tournament in Shelby, N.C., swiping the state championship away from Dothan Post 12, which finished the season 38-16. The result was a replay of last year when, Tuscaloosa Post 34 beat Dothan Post 12 twice in the championship round to win the state.

“It is disappointing,” Post 12 coach Larry Tubbs said. “I told some of our guys this morning that we have to take the state championship away from Tuscaloosa. They lost their first game here and won four games back to back to win it all. They deserved it.”

The games were completely different, but the result was painfully the same for Dothan Post 12. Starter Cale Nolen pitched a fine game in Sunday’s opener. He worked 7 1/3 innings and gave up three runs and four hits. He walked just three, but two of those baserunners scored. Nolen took a 4-1 lead into the eighth inning. He gave up a one-out walk to Coy Arrowood and a triple to Tournament MVP Nick Vickerson.

Dustin Ward relieved Nolen after Vickerson’s triple. He struck out Corben Green, but the ball in the dirt forced catcher Logan Dunlap to throw to first base for the out. Vickerson took off from third on Dunlap’s throw and scored, cutting Dothan’s lead to 4-3 going to the ninth inning.

Ward walked Jay Davis to open the ninth.

“We’re three outs away and a leadoff walk opens their inning up,” Tubbs said. “They took it away from us.”

Rob McWhirter doubled off the wall in right-center, scoring pinch runner Taylor Conant with the tying run. Reliever Josh Martin came on for Ward. Colby Dickerson reached on an error that put runners on the corners with nobody out. Martin’s pickoff throw to first sailed down the right-field line, scoring McWhirter with the go-ahead run and sending Dickerson to third. After a strikeout, Cameron Carlisle chopped a single over a drawn-in infield to make it 6-4. Carlisle was thrown out stealing for the second out, but Arrowood hit a double and scored two batters later on a single to left by Green.

For Dothan, Brennan Olive had three of Post 12’s hits and scored two runs in the opener. Taye Larry drove in two runs with RBI singles in the first and fifth. Dunlap’s RBI groundout gave Dothan a 3-1 lead in the fifth. Olive made it 4-1 in the bottom of the seventh. He had a bunt single, went to second on a sacrifice, reached third on Matt Whitton’s fly out to center and scored on an error by the shortstop Vickerson.

In the second game, Dothan Post 12 jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on Dunlap’s two-out, two-run double that scored Whitton and Larry.

But Tuscaloosa Post 34 got one back on Vickerson’s two-out home run in the bottom of the inning. They tied it in the second when Hunter Trawick reached on Larry’s error. Two walks loaded the bases with one out and Tubbs relieved starter Chris Barrentine with Jordan Reid. Reid threw a wild pitch on his first delivery, bring home Trawick. Reid escaped further damage in that inning.

Dothan took the lead 3-2 in the third. Matt Ragan reached on a throwing error and scored on Larry’s two-out double. Larry reached base in all five plate appearances in the second game, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs.

But, again, Tuscaloosa found answers. Trawick hit a three-run homer in the third to left field. Reid was lifted for Parrish Smith after two walks and an infield single loaded the bases in the fourth.  Green’s bloop single with one out gave Post 34 a 6-3 lead.

Dothan cut it to 6-5 in the fifth on two-out run-scoring singles by Larry and Dunlap, who went 3-for-5 in the game.

Tuscaloosa stretched it back to 9-5 with a three-run burst in the fifth. A walk and three straight singles, aided by two Dothan errors in the field, opened the floodgates.

Post 12 still trailed by four in the eighth before clawing back into the game. Karsten Whitson’s two-run double scored Larry and Dunlap. Starter Wes Grammar got two strikeouts before hitting Cody Evans. Olive, who went 3-for-5 in the first game, ripped a single to center that scored Whitson and Evans, tying the game. Olive was then caught stealing to end the top of the eighth.

Tuscaloosa won it in the bottom. A hit batter, an infield single and a one-out intentional walk loaded the bases for McWhirter. He hit a full-count delivery from Martin — the fifth of six Post 12 pitchers — off the wall in right-center to score two runs and make it 11-9. Ward threw a wild pitch to score a run and Arrowood drove in McWhirter with an infield single.

While disappointed, Tubbs agreed that a bad final day won’t ruin a summer.

“It’s a huge commitment to play for this team,” he said. “My hat’s off to these kids. We’ve been together since the middle of May. May 12 was our first meeting. It’s five or six days a week. They shut their summer down to play for us. I think they had fun.”