PREP BASEBALL: Abingdon edges John Battle in Mountain 7 tourney finals as Elijah Parks delivers walk-off hit (2024)

ABINGDON, Va. – It is true that Monday evening's Mountain 7 District baseball tournament title game didn’t hold much significance in the grand scheme of things as regional seeding for both the Abingdon Falcons and John Battle Trojans had already been set and a first-place trophy was really all that was on the line.

Yet, what some might consider a meaningless clash was certainly meaningful for those participating.

In front of a large crowd that hung on each pitch more and more as the game progressed and featured a vibe usually reserved for games with much higher stakes, Abingdon earned a 6-5 victory over Battle as Elijah Parks delivered a RBI single with out in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Falcons a walk-off win.

AHS (21-2) added the tourney championship to its regular-season Mountain 7 crown and continued its decade of dominance against league foes.

New University of Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer said that “Winners win because that’s what winners do,” at his introductory press conference back in January and perhaps that’s a phrase veteran Abingdon baseball boss Mark Francisco could borrow.

The Falcons have reeled off 88 consecutive victories against schools in the Mountain 7 District and haven’t lost to John Battle since April 3, 2014.

While many of those wins have been mundane, Monday’s triumph was a thriller that featured several shifts of momentum.

Battle (18-5) overcame 3-0 and 5-2 deficits to knot the score and force extra innings.

“It was intense,” Parks said. “I went up there for that last at-bat and everybody was into it and it was really loud.”

It got louder when Parks lashed the first pitch he saw from Battle right-hander Noah Sills into left field and Jett Humphreys trotted home for the winning run.

“The game was on the line and I knew I was going to hit it,” Parks said. “I went up there with no doubt. He threw it down the middle and I just took the bat to it.”

That Humphreys was the dude who scored the winning run was fitting as his night featured several emotional highs and lows.

One of his two hits on the night was a home run to begin the bottom of the third inning.

Humphreys pitched 4 1/3 decent innings of relief, but surrendered a game-tying two-run homer to John Battle junior Elijah Childress with one out in the top of the seventh inning.

“I left that pitch over the middle of the plate and it was a great shot by him,” Humphreys said. “It happens. Not everybody’s perfect. You do what you’ve gotta do and keep pushing. After he hit that home run, all I was thinking was zero-zero ballgame right now.”

Landon Turman led off the eighth inning with a double for Abingdon and that prompted John Battle coach Jimmy Gobble to issue an intentional walk to Humphreys to set up the force play.

“Honestly, I felt it coming a little bit,” Humphreys said. “I was really wanting to hit, so I was hoping it didn’t happen.”

The batter following Humphreys, Abingdon freshman Hayden Reed, smashed a liner up the middle for a hit, but hard-charging center fielder Broadie Bailey corralled the ball and unleashed a terrific throw to catcher Caden Sturgill, who applied the tag to Turman for the first out.

That still left Humphreys on third and Parks ended the drama one pitch later.

“Elijah Parks has been hot lately,” Francisco said. “He’s the hardest working kid in the program and we always preach that you reap what you sow, and we’re excited to see him reaping the benefits of what he’s been doing.”

His final swing capped a classic contest.

“There was a whole lot of energy,” Gobble said. “We saw a lot of what we needed to see from some of our guys.”

Among them was Sills, who pitched 5 1/3 solid innings in relief of Porter Gobble.

“Noah Sills did a really good job,” Gobble said.

The defense was also dandy.

The Trojans turned three double plays, Bailey and freshman right fielder Palmer Gobble had outfield assists and catcher Caden Sturgill threw out two would-be Abingdon base stealers.

“Every time we play, both teams get better,” Francisco said. “I don’t know if John Battle could play a better game pitching-wise and defensive-wise. They really played tremendous defense. It was a battle. We were fortunate and I’m proud of our kids coming through.”

Battle had just three hits against three Abingdon pitchers. Beckett Dotson of the Falcons got his 10th win of the season after getting the final five outs.

Parks, Aidan Smith and Judge Dillow each had two hits for Abingdon with Smith smacking a two-run single in the second inning.

“I was happy with the way we swung it,” Francisco said. “We had one bad inning [the third] where we forgot how to play defense and made some uncharacteristic mistakes [three errors], but we were able to fight through it.”

Abingdon hosts either Tunstall or Hidden Valley on Friday at 12:30 p.m. in a Region 3D tournament quarterfinal contest.

“It’s a tough region, but we’re excited to have homefield advantage and hopefully, we can take care of business on Friday,” Francisco said.

Meanwhile, John Battle opens the Region 2D tournament on Thursday night at home against the Marion Scarlet Hurricanes, the team they beat in last year’s regional finals.

“I like our team and I’ve liked this team all year,” Jimmy Gobble said. “They are good group of kids and hopefully, we got some magic in us to make a little run. We competed our tails off tonight and I still feel we didn’t play our best game.”

Monday’s showdown was an eventful tune-up for both clubs.

Who said the district tournaments weren’t as good as they used to be?

It certainly felt like old times for the old rivals on Monday.

“The playoffs definitely feel like that,” Humphreys said. “It was good for us to get a game like that to get ready for regions and possibly for the state tournament.”

John Battle 002 001 20—5 3 2

Abingdon 031 100 01—6 10 4

Po. Gobble, Sills (3) and Sturgill. Turman, Humphreys (3), Dotson (7) and Dillow. W – Dotson (10-1). L – Sills. HR – Humphreys (A), 3rd, none on; Childress (JB), 7th, one on.