Published: June 29, 2009 04:05 pm      

Braves win 12th straight on Woods hit

ADA — Ada American Legion baseball coach Travis Graham is nothing if not flexible — even when he’s not officially in the game.

Graham, ejected two innings earlier for arguing balls and strikes, got word to his assistant coaches to send Chad Woods — who had just pitched the top of the inning — to the plate with the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the ninth in Sunday night’s wild contest between Graham’s Post 72 Braves and the visiting Bartlesville Indians.

The move was a first for Graham, who had never had one of his pitchers bat during a summer and a half as the Braves’ head man. But Woods, who has seen a lot of action in the outfield recently because of an injury to J. P. Maples, made his coach look good, lining an 0-2 fastball to the wall in left-center to score Matt Johnson with the winning run and give the Braves a tense 6-5 victory.

Woods’ clutch hit capped what had, to that point, been an evening of futility for the Ada offense — which outhit the Indians, 18-9 — and gave the Post 72 squad its 12th victory in a row and 22nd in 25 games since the Braves started the season with five straight losses.

“(Jesse) Cashman (who had walked leading off the eighth inning as a pinch hitter for Hunter Marcum in the No. 8 spot in the Braves’ lineup) had to leave the game (because Johnson, who started the game as the designated hitter, had moved to second base to replace Marcum), and I only had pitchers on the bench,” Graham said of his game-deciding move. “(Woods) has done a great job at the plate over the last month. He’s just a baseball player. He’s just a gamer.”

Bartlesville reliever Casey Cassity, who had allowed just one run in the previous three-plus innings and had escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth, jumped ahead of Johnson — who had figured in a controversial play on defense in the top of the inning — 1-2 before the Asher product lined a fast-ball to the gap in left-center for a double leading off the ninth.

“Matt is just a hard-nosed small-school baseball player,” Graham said of Johnson, who finished 3-for-5 and also drove in the first Ada run with a first-inning single. “We have a lot of players from smaller schools, and they’re taught hard-nosed baseball from the time they’re in t-ball.”

Jon Ervin, whose line-drive solo homer to left in the third inning had given the Braves a 4-2 lead, followed Johnson’s hit with a ground-ball single to left. Johnson was held at third, then Tyler Porter was walked intentionally to load the bases and set the stage for Woods’ game-winning hit.

“I wasn’t expecting (to hit) at all,” Woods said. “I didn’t have my batting glove.”

Woods swung at — and missed — Cassity’s first two offerings (both fastballs), and, although he admitted after the game that he was surprised to get a third straight heater from the Bartlesville lefty he drilled it over the drawn-in outfield for a long walkoff single.

“I was expecting a curve ball,” said Woods of the pitch he hit for the game winner.

Woods’ hit wrote a fitting climax to nine innings of the most eventful baseball seen at Cougar Field in a long time.

Ada starter David Cagle — roughed up for seven runs in less than two innings in a 14-11 loss at Bartlesville in the season opener last month but winner of six straight decisions since then — pitched into the seventh inning this time. The former Coalgate ace allowed four runs and seven hits and left with two outs in the seventh nursing a 5-4 lead.

Jon Gray came on in relief after Cagle had surrendered a leadoff homer to Michael Mueller and had hit Scott Hall and Brice Williams. He then retired pinch hitter Jacob Hanna on a slow roller to third that was turned into a nice play by Ervin for the third out. Although Gray surrendered the tying run in the top of the eighth on a one-out walk to Drew Anthony and singles by Mark Lemaster and Mueller, an alert play by Ervin and Keith (the Ada catcher) one pitch after Meuller’s hit short-circuited what could have been a big inning for the Indians.

Bartlesville attempted a suicide squeeze on the first pitch to Hall, but Ervin alerted Keith to what was coming, and Gray pitched out. Keith jumped outside to take the pitch and was back in plenty of time to block the plate as LeMaster barreled home from third. He made the tag despite a hard collision at the plate (which resulted in LeMaster being ejected) for the second out, and Ervin went on to strike out Hall on a 3-2 fastball to end the inning.

“It caught me off guard,” Keith said. “Their coach was talking real loud, and Ervin heard him. I’m glad Ervin yelled. I was surprised they would try that in that spot.”

The Braves had a golden opportunity to regain the lead in the bottom of the eighth, loading the bases on the leadoff walk to Cashman, a one-out single to right-center by Robert Thomas (the fourth hit of the game for the red-hot Ada leadoff hitter) and a beautiful bunt up the first-base line that Jeremy Stein beat out for an infield single (also his fourth hit of the evening). Casssity worked out of the jam, however, retiring Keith on a pop fly to shallow right and striking out cleanup hitter Randy McCurry to end the inning.

Woods (5-1) relieved Gray in the top of the ninth and hit leadoff hitter Dylan Ketchum with a 1-2 fastball. Three pitches later, Colton Porter hit a ground ball to third that Ervin fielded and fired to Johnson, who was hit by the baserunner as he attempted the relay to first. Johnson’s throw sailed over Tyler Porter’s head at first, but Colton Porter was also called out because of interference with Johnson at second base, completing the double play. Williams then grounded out to set up Woods’ heroics in the bottom of the ninth.

Hall’s line-drive, opposite-field homer to right with one out in the first gave the Indians an early 1-0 lead, and, although the Braves tied it in the bottom of the inning, they wasted the first of their several chances for big innings in the game.

Stein started the rally by beating out a one-out chopper to third for an infield hit, then Keith blooped a single to shallow center, sending Stein to third. McCurry popped out to shallow center for the first out, but Johnson blooped a single to right to plate Stein. Ervin then walked to load the bases before Porter flied out to left to end the inning.

Cagle retired the first two hitters in the second but walked LeMaster on a 3-2 pitch and surrendered an RBI double to Mueller that gave the Indians their last lead of the night. Hall followed with a walk, but Cagle struck out Ketchum (for the second time in two innings) on a 2-2 fastball for the third out.

Ada answered in the bottom of the inning, scoring twice off Bartlesville starter Corey Anthony. Marcum led off with a sharp single to right, moved to second on a sacrifice by Jake Williams and scored on Thomas’s first hit of the game — a double to right-center. Thomas moved to third on a groundout by Stein and scored on Keith’s sharp single to center to make it 3-2.

After Colton Porter doubled leading off the Bartlesville third but was erased at the plate for the third out in the inning on a beautiful relay from McCurry (the Ada shortstop) back to Keith on an attempted double steal, Ervin’s homer in the bottom of the inning put Ada up 4-2.

Williams ran down Anthony’s liner into the gap in right-center leading off the fourth, then that play proved to be huge when LeMaster (the next hitter) lined a 2-2 pitch over the wall in right to pull the Indians to within a run at 4-3.

Cagle retired eight of the next nine hitters he faced, and the Braves added a run in the sixth on one-out singles by Thomas and Stein and Keith’s RBI groundout.

After Mueller homered on a 2-0 pitch leading off the seventh, Graham came out to argue with the home plate umpire. Following a spirited discussion, the Ada coach was tossed for the first time this season.

“I had to defend my guy,” Graham said. “After those first two pitches (both breaking pitches) were called balls, (Cagle) had to feed (Mueller) a fastball, and he hit it out. I know the umpires have a job to do, but Cagle was doing a good job, and he deserved better.”

In addition to the four hits by Thomas (the team’s hottest hitter in June) and Stein and the three hits from Johnson, the Braves got two hits apiece and a total of three RBIs from Keith and Ervin. Mueller had three of Bartlesville’s nine hits and Porter and LeMaster added two hits apiece in the loss.

The Braves — who play tournaments in Missouri and at the Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City in July — will play their next-to-last home game of the regular season Tuesday when they host defending state Legion champion Enid. McCurry, who has registered two saves in three relief appearances this summer, will make his first start on the mound in a Braves uniform Tuesday.