ALEDO -- The ice water from a bucket in the dugout was still sending chills down Ricky Griffin’s back Saturday when he stopped to tell his players how long the memories of what had happened on the field at Aledo High School would last.
Scotty Stewart had just stroked a single to left field in the top of the seventh inning to score what proved to be the game-winning run, and turned around to close out Arygle’s 8-7 win over Breckenridge in the final game of a remarkable comeback in a bi-district playoff series.
The Eagles were down 1-0 in the series when the day began and trailed 7-3 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning of Game 3 before scoring five runs that gave them the game and the series.
“I told them that when I was in high school in ’83 I was a part of a comeback like that, and the neat thing about it is I could tell them out-for-out how it happened because the memory is so thick,” Griffin said. “I said that they were a part of something that when they are 40 like I am they are still going to look back on it and remember it.”
The tale the Eagles will tell will be full of big hits and clutch pitches, the most important of which came after Argyle seemed destined to come up short in its effort to rally against the Buckaroos.
Argyle had managed just three runs on three hits in six innings against Breckenridge pitcher Brooks McClanahan before momentum gradually swung the Eagles’ way after he recorded the first two outs of the seventh inning.
Right fielder Mike Stein and first baseman Josh Sizelove walked, pushing center fielder Lance Sutton, who had reached earlier in the inning on a fielder’s choice, to third.
The second walk gave third baseman Pat Dawkins a chance to bat with the bases loaded.
“Coach told us to take until we got a strike,” Dawkins said. “Once the bases were loaded, he told me that if he made a mistake, I didn’t have to take. He threw me a pitch outside and I took it the other way.”
Dawkins’ drive to left field brought home two runs and rattled Breckenridge, which committed a pair of errors that allowed another two runs to score. Dawkins scampered home on the second of those errors to tie the game and bring Stewart to the plate.
Griffin had dropped Stewart to seventh in the batting order in the hope that it would bring the junior out of a batting slump.
The plan worked. Stewart stroked a single to left to score the game-winning run, one that sent Argyle to the area round of the playoffs to face Canyon next weekend in Snyder.
“The pressure was off with the game tied,” Stewart said. “I got my pitch. When it went through, it was like nothing I have ever felt before. That is why I play baseball.”
Stewart pitched the final four innings and retired Breckenridge in order in the seventh to conclude a two-game sweep that began in the second game of the series earlier in the day.
Argyle was in a do-or-die situation in Game 2 after Breckenridge scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning Friday to win the first game of the series 7-6.
Storm Griffin committed two key errors late in the first game before bouncing back to throw five shutout innings in a 10-0 win in Game 2 that was cut to five innings by the mercy rule. Ricky Griffin credited his son’s ability to regroup to the encouragement he received from his teammates -- not to mention a care package from the Argyle booster club that lifted his spirits.
Argyle stuck with Storm Griffin as its starter in Game 3, but saw him give up six runs in the first inning to put the Eagles in a 6-1 hole.
That deficit quickly disappeared in the seventh inning when Argyle created some lifelong memories during a remarkable rally.
“We just kept fighting,” Scotty Stewart said. “We are not going to give up. We had two outs, but we overcame adversity. We didn’t come this far to lose.”
BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com.
Argyle 10, Breckenridge 0
Argyle 120 25 -- 10 8 2
Breckenridge 000 00 -- 0 4 2
WP – Storm Griffin. LP – David Howard. 2B – B: Brooks McClanahan. 3B – A: Jake Sizelove.
Argyle 8, Breckenridge 7
Argyle 101 010 5 -- 8 5 3
Breckenridge 600 001 0 -- 7 9 5
WP –Scotty Stewart. LP -- Brooks McClanahan. 2B – B: Carlos Ruiz.
