Magnolia’s past few baseball victories haven’t been pretty, but all have been necessary.
Two weeks ago, the Panthers looked as if they were not going to earn a berth in the Class 4A South Region Tournament, which they were hosting next week.
“We talked about that. After our fourth conference loss, we started going into a do-or-die situation,” said Magnolia head coach Bobby Beeson. “We were treating every game like state tournament, because there was no postseason if we lose.”
The coach said a loss would’ve meant the Panthers would be on the outside looking in and needing help from someone.
“You hate having to depend on someone else in situations like these,” he said.
After four consecutive league wins, it was the fifth one (6-3 victory over Hamburg) on Monday that secured their position in the region tournament.
The regionals will be played May 2-4 at Panther Field and will involve the top four teams from the 4A-7 and 4A-8 conferences.
“Our guys have battled the past few weeks and got some key wins. They haen’t been pretty, but a win is a win at this point,” said Beeson.
The coach said finishing strong is what he wanted his team to do. The Panthers went from possibly being eliminated from the postseason to potentially earning the second seed spot.
“We want to continue playing solid baseball and making the right plays at the right time. Everyone knows that anything can happen in the postseason, but the key is getting there,” he added.
After playing their regular-season finale against Warren on Tuesday, Beeson said he will look for another opponent to play before regional starts.
“There’s such a big gap between now and the tournament. We would love to get another one in,” he said.
The Panthers have now qualified for postseason play 16 seasons in a row and 24 of the last 25 seasons.
During the key win over Hamburg that put them in the postseason, Beeson pulled his entire team together.
The Panthers had just fallen behind 3-0 to the Lions in the second.
“I told them that we looked as if we were dead. We were playing on our home field and it looked as if we didn’t want to be here,” said the coach. “They finally got a little pep in their steps and put four across in that inning.”
It was the turning point in the contest as the Panthers later added two more runs.
In the third, Kevin Zhao had a two-RBI double, one run scored on an fly ball error and another on a sacrifice fly.
In the sixth, back-to-back RBI doubles by Payton Campbell and Dayton Dickson helped the Panthers put the game out of reach.
“I thought once I got their attention, we woke up and started playing ball. We stranded a lot of runners and just couldn’t seem to find the big hit,” said Beeson.
Adam Pieratt (4-2) went the distance on the mound, sitting the Lions down in order during the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings. He struck out 10 batters and the five hits he gave up came during the first two innings.
“We had a great pitching performance from Pieratt. He didn’t have it early, but after that he settled down. He was the Adam we were use to seeing,” stated Beeson, adding the pitcher was hitting both sides of the plate and throwing curve balls for strikes.
The Panthers had 11 hits for the game, led by Zhao and Clark with three apiece. Dickson had two hits, while Connor Harrington, Campbell and Eli Ward had one hit each. Pieratt walked twice, with Clark and Harrington walking once each.
Magnolia suffered a heart-breaking 4-3 loss to league-leading Monticello two weeks ago.
Things began to change after that with them knocking off Crossett, 2-1, Star City 2-0, Camden 4-3, Star City again 14-4 and Hamburg 6-3.
Against Crossett, the Panthers kept their postseason hopes alive behind a nine-strikeout performance by Harrington on the mound. He also led at the plate by going 3-for-3.
Magnolia had only two hits in their first meeting against Star City, but they were enough for a 2-0 victory. It was Pieratt on the mound going the distance, striking out five batters along the way.
In their second meeting against the Bulldogs, the Panthers had one of their best offensive performances of the season. They pounded out 11 hits while winning by 10 runs. Campbell and Kyle Carver had home runs, while Campbell added four RBIs. Dickson had provided three hits and three RBIs.
Harrington threw a complete game on the mound, striking out four batters and giving up seven hits.
During a tough road battle at Camden Fairview, the Panthers rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Cardinals 4-3. Halen Sanders had a solid performance on the mound, striking out eight Cardinal batters.