Magic Argylls: Argylls rout nemesis Comets to retake sectional 39 title
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GREENTOWN — When Madison-Grant coach John Walters visited pitcher Xavier Yeagy at the mound during the sixth inning of Monday’s sectional championship game, the junior made it very clear he had no intention of coming out of the game.
Or at least, if he was, Walters was going to have to request a new baseball for the reliever.
“I thought he was coming out to replace me with Teagan (Yeagy), and I said I’d throw the ball over the outfield fence if he took me out,” Yeagy said.
Shortstop Teagan Yeagy, Xavier’s older brother, confirmed his brother would have stayed true to his word.
“That ball was not getting handed over,” he said . Walters left Xavier in, and the junior finished what he started, scattering five hits over seven innings while the offense pounded Eastern pitching for 13 runs on 13 hits as the Argylls knocked off the two-time defending sectional champions 13-1 and claimed their first sectional championship since 2021.
The Sectional 39 championship also came in the first season for Walters at the helm and led to a number of emotional scenes on the field as he took time to thank his supporters.
“It’s a great day to be an Argyll,” he said. “I had a really good meeting with the boys this morning, and I told them there is one word that has to have an ‘m’ and a ‘g’ in it, and that’s ‘magic.’”
In two sectional games this weekend, Madison-Grant (16-10) outscored Elwood and Eastern (22-9-1) by a combined 21-2 score, and its hitters struck out just five times total while the defense committed just three errors — two of those coming in one inning in Saturday’s win over Elwood.
Monday, the Argylls turned a double play, cut down a runner going for an extra base and made the routine plays in routine fashion.
“Our defense has been great,” Walters said.
An inability to make the routine play cost Eastern dearly and may have opened the floodgates for the Argylls’ offense.
With one out in the M-G second inning, Max Franklin doubled and scored on a single by Levi Nelson.
That prompted the Comets to lift starting pitcher Perry Kochensparger in favor of Colt Snyder, who promptly walked Xavier Yeagy to load the bases. Lucas Humphries — who earlier walked — then scored from third on a Luke Gilman grounder for a 2-0 lead. But it was the second out and — after intentionally walking Teagan Yeagy — the Comets appeared to have escaped further trouble when Tripp Haisley lifted a lazy fly ball to right field.
But right fielder Collin Otto could not negotiate the wind and dropped the fly ball, allowing all three runs to score, and it was suddenly a 5-0 Argylls’ lead.
And it was a lead they continued to build upon. In the third, Franklin singled with one out and scored all the way from first on a Humphries double for a 6-0 lead, and Harry Brooks singled home Teagan Yeagy in the fourth for a 7-0 advantage.
All the while, Xavier Yeagy was keeping the Comets hitters at bay. He retired the first seven batters he faced and did not allow a hit until Eastern scored its only run in the fourth. With one out, Butler-commit Corbyn Snyder doubled to deep right-center to score Owen Seagrave, but thanks to a perfect relay throw from Haisley at second base, Snyder was out going for third base.
The offensive additions grew to a crescendo in the fifth, when the Argylls put three more on the board after the first two batters were retired.
Xavier Yeagy and Gilman started the inning with walks, and both scored on a triple to deep right by Teagan Yeagy. Haisley then brought Teagan home with a single to right.
Three more scored in M-G’s final at-bat after, again, the first two batters were out. Gilman and Teagan Yeagy drew walks, and Haisley doubled them home before Brooks capped the victory with a single to right to score Haisley.
Gilman was the only Argyll starter without a hit, but he walked three times and scored twice. It was the kind of offensive showing that makes life relatively stress-free for a pitcher.
“There is no relaxing in baseball. It’s a weird sport,” Xavier Yeagy said. “It did give me that confidence to go out there and do my stuff on the mound and they would back me up.”
It was also an especially sweet victory for seniors Franklin and Teagan Yeagy, two players who can remember the 2021 title. Saturday, the two combined to go 4-for-7 with two RBI and six runs scored.
“We came out wanting to win, and hitting (batting practice) before this we were hitting really well,” Franklin said. “We knew in the second inning that we were fired up. We were going. There was nothing they could really do about it.”
“We’ve faced them three out of the four years (in the championship game) that I’ve been here, and now I’m 2-1 against them,” Teagan Yeagy said.
The Argylls will await their regional destination where they will play either Frankton or Wapahani, who played later Monday in the Sectional 40 championship.