Auburn High wins state championship

MONTGOMERY — James Ponder ripped a double down the third-base line and Russell Melton got on his horse.

The sophomore pinch runner took off from first, rounded second and sprinted past a windmilling Matt Cimo at third, following teammates Grant Massey and Trey Gregg to home plate.

Game over. Auburn High is your new Class 6A baseball state champion.

Ponder’s three-run double capped off a 13-3, six-inning Tigers win over Oxford in Game 2 of the 6A championship series at Riverwalk Stadium, sweeping the Yellow Jackets and collecting the team’s first state title since 1986.

“Every kid dreams of ending their last high school baseball game on a win,” said Reid Carter, one of the Tigers’ four seniors. “And the only way you can do that is with a state championship.”

After scoring two runs in the first inning of a 4-1 win in Game 1 of the series, No. 7 Auburn (36-8) again got the bats going early in the deciding game.

Todd Thompson started the bottom of the first with a single, Tanner Cimo hit a double and Trey Gregg walked to load the bases with one out.

Then Chace Mitchell hit a sacrifice fly, and Ponder and Carter each hit RBI singles — with Ponder scoring on an error — to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead after one.

“We were just looking fastball and hit it hard where it’s pitched,” said Ponder, who was 4-for-4 with six RBI and earned tournament MVP honors. “And two strikes, sit back on the curveball.”

Every time Oxford (28-14) put up a run on starter Drew Eiland after the first, the Tigers had an answer.

When the Yellow Jackets scored one in the top of the third, Ponder responded with an RBI single in the bottom.

When Oxford scored two to cut the lead to 5-3 in the fifth, Auburn put up three on another Mitchell sacrifice fly, a Ponder RBI double and another Carter RBI single in its half.

“It seemed like the last few weeks we have answered,” Tigers coach Matt Cimo said. “We kept putting it on them and they just couldn’t get over the hump.”

The Yellow Jackets hit Eiland hard most of the game, but had trouble pushing runs across because most of their hits came with one out already on the board.

Eiland (7-1) gave up three runs (one earned) on eight hits, striking out two and walking one in six innings.

“The hitter’s going to win one out of three times, and it’s their job to hit the ball,” Eiland said. “I just left it up to my defense to try to get the job done and gave them a chance to do it.”

Much like they have all season, the Tigers got meaningful production up and down their lineup Friday.

Thompson was 1-for-2 with two runs, Tanner Cimo was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs, Massey was 1-for-3 with two runs, Gregg was 2-for-2 with four runs and a RBI and Carter — batting seventh for Auburn — was 2-for-3 with two RBI.

Mitchell, in one of the odd perks of baseball scorekeeping, had a 0-for-0 day with three RBI: two sacrifice flies, a hit batsman that drove in another run and a sacrifice bunt.

Auburn, which won nine out of 10 games to start the season, won 10 out of 11 in the playoffs to end it, outscoring opponents 82-31.

Carter couldn’t think of a better way to go out.

“Nobody can ever take this away from us,” Carter said. “We’ll see each other 20 years down the road and we’ll just have to smile because of this day.

dmorrison@oanow.com | 737-2568