By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
Watch enough high school baseball and you’ll quickly come to the realization that there is no such thing as a routine ground ball. It doesn’t matter if it is the third inning of the pre-season jamboree or the bottom of the seventh inning of the championship game. Too many things can happen, either physically or mentally.
So when Ouachita Christian had the winning run on third base in Saturday’s Division IV state championship game against Calvary and a routine ball was hit to second base, the Cavaliers’ Logan Fontenot had to make the play.
Couldn’t let it go between his legs. Couldn’t fumble it. Couldn’t short-arm the throw to first base. And this is a teenager we are talking about. These aren’t automatic plays even in the major leagues: Google “Chuck Knoblauch” or “Steve Sax” to find out why.
Calvary coach Jason Legg had plenty of things to worry about at that point, but his infield defense wasn’t one of them. “I’m telling you there were four guys there (in the infield) who wanted the ball hit to them,” he said.
Even though things had started going sideways for the Cavaliers in the previous 10 minutes — the Cavs had been one out away from hoisting the trophy before Eagles scored three runs to tie it in the bottom of the seventh, and had the bases loaded — Fontenot didn’t even blink.
He made a routine play look just that – routine. And because of that, Calvary would go on to win their fifth state title an extra-inning later with a 12-4 margin Saturday in Hammond on the campus of Southeastern Louisiana.
Think of all the things that could have happened to the Cavs in that situation without the ball even being hit. A curveball grazes the jersey of a batter. A balk. A wild pitch or a passed ball. Ball Four.
The state championship was on the line. Somebody had to make a play. And Fontenot did.
If he didn’t, what transpired next would have never happened. After the groundout, the Cavs got back in the dugout and realized the most important thing – they were still playing.
“When I went out to coach third in the top of the eighth, I told their coaches, ‘This is how a state championship game should be,’” Legg said.
Not for long.
The Cavs rattled off twice as many runs in the top of the eighth as they had in the previous seven innings combined. And guess who knocked in the go-ahead run in the eight-run inning? Of course it was Fontenot.
Guess who was in the middle of a game-ending, championship-winning double play to make it official? Fontenot.
Commence dogpile.
“I stood back and watched the previous two dogpiles (in the quarterfinals and the semifinals),” Legg said. “I was fine with them (the players) doing it, but there’s only one that matters. So I made sure I got in this one. That’s probably the most air I’ve gotten since high school.”
There was another play that happened that, like Fontenot’s, may seem routine but is one of those little things that win games.
With the score tied at 4-4 in the bottom of the seventh and a runner on second, a single to left-center field would have scored a lot of runs in most high school games. But with the championship on the line, Calvary centerfielder Aubrey Hermes got to the ball quickly, forcing OCS to put the stop sign out for the runner heading into third with the difference-maker.
“He did a great job of getting to that ball and getting it back to the infield,” Legg said of Hermes’ play. “But if he doesn’t get to it that fast or it eats him up with a bad hop, who knows? I was a little surprised that they held him, but I think he would have been a dead duck.”
Maybe. But when runner, catcher and baseball all meet at home plate, nothing is for certain.
What is for certain is that those little plays – Hermes in the outfield and Fontenot in the infield – prove that sometimes, championship plays are the routine ones.
And the Calvary Cavaliers made them.
Photo by ERIC LYDDY