Abbeville Christian wins state

MONTGOMERY — Chip White wasn’t stopping.

The freshman, who led off the bottom of the seventh with a double, said he “took off” when Dillon Wilson smacked a game-winning line drive to deep left-center.

“I was rounding third, ready to get it over with. Wooooo!! I was yelling before I rounded third,” White said when he emerged from a celebratory pile of Generals at Paterson Field.

White scored the winning run that gave Abbeville Christian a 7-6 victory over Cornerstone Christian on Friday and the school’s third AISA Class A state championship.

Wilson’s hit landed over the head of Cornerstone left fielder Pokey Reece.

“I knew it was gonna happen,” said Wilson, who pitched two-thirds of an inning in the seventh and earned his second of the championship series. He beat the Chargers 14-4 in five innings in Game 1.

“I’ve been hitting since the last series against Wilcox. I knew it was gonna happen,” Wilson said. “I knew it was in the gap, but I thought he (Reece) might get to it. I didn’t really think it was going to get over him. It’s a long field and I thought it was short. It went right over him, though.”

And what did seeing the ball hit the ground in left-center feel like?

“As soon as I touched first, it was the greatest feeling in the world,” said Wilson, named the tournament’s MVP.

“I’m just tickled to death for the kids,” ACA coach Johnny White said. “It is great. A different feeling. We sat around here for three or four days, it seems like, and we came through in the clutch. That’s what you work for all year. Really, it’s more than that. It’s a build-up of two or three years to get back to this point.”

Chip White, Wilson and Gabe Newman each had two hits and one RBI for Abbeville Christian (23-9-1). Clay Herring added a two-run single in a five-run fourth inning that erased a 4-1 Cornerstone lead.

Wilson came in for ACA starter Shelby Watford, who pitched very well in a pressure situation.

“We were in the same situation last week at Wilcox,” Watford said. “I was on the mound in Game 3 and went about the same distance.

“Dillon came on and shut them down in the last inning. It was the same thing we did last week. I knew if we did it then we could do it again. And that’s exactly what we did.”

Watford was put in a tough situation early. Cornerstone erased a 1-0 deficit by scoring four unearned runs in the top of the third. Three errors, two kicked grounders and a dropped throw on a forceout, were costly to the Generals. However, Watford got out of the inning when Reece reached on an infield single with runners on second-and-third. The runner on third scored, but Jacob Henderson was thrown out at the plate by first baseman Anthony Sellers trying to score from second.

Trailing 4-1, Abbeville Christian surged in the fourth. Leadoff walks to Wilson and Sellers came back to haunt Henderson, who started for Cornerstone (26-6).

Newman followed with RBI single to left. Herring, who served as a bat boy on ACA’s 2003 and 2004 state champions, delivered a two-run single down the left-field line that tied the game.

“I was a bat boy on my brother Hunter’s teams,” the younger Herring said. “This is a whole lot better.”

Herring stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Corey Owens’ sacrifice fly to center that put the Generals ahead 5-4. ACA added another run when Watford singled and scored on Chip White’s double to right-center, which came on a hit-and-run.

A sacrifice fly by Jacob Henderson drew Cornerstone to 6-5 in the fifth. The Chargers tied the game in the top of the seventh. Trey Benson hit a one-out double and scored on Josh Dunnaway’s double.

White called for Wilson to replace Watford.

“At that point, I was running on adrenaline,” Watford said.

“He’s a quality pitcher,” ACA coach Johnny White said of Wilson. “He had a little arm problem toward the end of the year. We tried to keep his innings down. But when he is on he’s a really dominant guy. Good curve ball. His fastball, when he’s throwing well, is in the 80s.”

Wilson struck out Henderson and Reece to set up the game-winning rally in the bottom of the seventh.

“I was just focusing on getting a hit, getting on base,” said Chip White, who led off. “I knew somebody would come through. Dillon did just that. He came up with the clutch hit.”

White doubled to right-center to lead off the inning.

“That was huge,” he proud father said. “Chip’s been around it for a while now. He has it rough, I want to tell you the dang truth. Between his mom (ACA softball coach Connie White) and me and being coached and being taught and being everything all the time.

But he loves clutch situations and he came through.”

After a fly ball to center for the first out, Wilson came up.

“He started hitting the ball much better this year,” Johnny White said. “He started swinging left-handed some. He started out and struck out a time or two left-handed and I was about ready to kill him. Then he kept swinging and ended up hitting about .500 left-handed. I’ve wondered a time or two why he didn’t stay left-handed. He’s got some talent.”

His walk-off line drive gave Johnny White his first state championship in about 30 years in coaching — at Geneva County, Rehobeth, Cottonwood, Seminole County and now Abbeville Christian.

“I think I’ll hold on for another year or two now,” he laughed.

Why not? Each of the players named to the All-Tournament Team — Wilson, Chip White, Watford and Sellers — will be back next year. In fact, the Generals have just three seniors on the roster and two in the starting lineup.