It took another late-game pep talk, this time from Columbia assistant coach Blake King.
It finally woke up the Tigers’ bats in the sixth inning, and they also got some help to turn a comeback into a blowout.
Columbia struck for 10 runs in the sixth — three coming on balks — to rally for an 11-2 win over District 3-5A foe Fleming Island at home Friday night. It capped a 3-0 week for the Tigers, who were just one night removed from possibly having a fourth when they led Chiles 4-2 before lightning postponed the game in the fourth inning.
That postponement had Columbia head coach Chris Howard worried about a letdown, and his fears were realized through five innings on Friday. But after King met with the team in between innings, the Tigers sent 13 batters to the plate in the sixth, scoring runs via a pair of RBI singles from Casen Maddox and Goose Lord, a two-RBI single by Nolan Slaymaker, a wild pitch, three balks from Golden Eagles relief pitcher Jaxon Hatten, an RBI triple by Madden Mann, and an error.
“I was worried after having a long week,” Howard said. (Thursday) we felt like we had a good team beat and it kind of got taken from us. I was worried all day we were going to be down and we were, but we found a way to pull out a win. It was a good week of baseball.”
Fleming Island starting pitcher Evan Huber had held Columbia (6-4) in check for most of the night, only allowing a run in the fourth on an RBI groundout by Kyler Keen. He was in line for the win too after a bases-loaded walk had given him a 2-1 lead in the top of the sixth, but things quickly unraveled for Huber in the bottom half of the inning.
Abraham Martinez led off the game-turning inning with an infield single and then advanced to second on a ball before scoring on an RBI single by Maddox to tie the game. Courtesy runner Nolan Martinez then stole second base and scored on an RBI single by Lord to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead.
That was the end of Huber’s night, but the damage was far from over. Max Atchison came on in relief and immediately hit Keen with a pitch to set up a 2-RBI single by Slaymaker to make it 5-2.
“Both times I made them take until they got a strike, we scored runs so we may have to put that rule in,” Howard said. “I told them to just take until they had a strike those last two innings, let’s get some baserunners and see if we can make something happen. And it worked again like it did against Forest. Maybe we need to take that approach offensively.”
Atchison then walked Nemo Flowers before being called for a balk, and he followed that up with a wild pitch on a ball four to Colton Mote to bring home Slaymaker. That prompted another pitching change to Hatten, who hit Tison McCray with a pitch and quickly committed three balks to bring home three more runs to give the Tigers a 9-2 lead.
“I’ve never see that, but he wasn’t coming set,” Howard said.
That brought Martinez to the plate, who drew a walk to set up an RBI triple by Mann. Mann, who finished 3 for 4, then scored on an RBI groundout by Maddox to make it 11-2.
In all, Fleming Island (7-4) committed six balks on the night, including two by Huber who suffered the loss after being charged with four earned runs on six hits, a walk and a hit batter in 5 1/3 innings.
After rolling through his three-man starting rotation through the first three games this week, Howard opted to start junior Weston Thomas on the mound for the first time. Thomas only allowed one baserunner in the first two innings but ran into trouble in the third when he hit a batter and walked another before walking and hitting two more after Maddox had thrown out the lead runner at third.
It forced the Tigers to pull Thomas after just 2 2/3 innings where he didn’t allow a hit but hit three batters and walked a pair while striking out three.
“The first couple of innings he was good and he kind of lost it there,” Howard said. “But that’s something to build on. That was his fist varsity start.”
Joel Glover relieved Thomas and got Columbia out of the bases-loaded jam, but Jackson Purvis then took Glover deep to right field for a solo home run in the fourth and the game’s first run.
“He just threw a fastball down the middle and that kid ran into it,” Howard said. “That happens.”
Columbia tied the game in the fourth when Maddox reached on a fielder’s choice and Lord was hit by a pitch, which eventually set up Keen’s RBI groundout. But Fleming Island struck for another run against Glover in the sixth when he loaded the bases via two walks and a single before Mote replaced him and issued another walk to Kaden Lewis.
That had the Golden Eagles in line for the win before the wheels completely fell off just a half inning later. Mote went down in the book with the victory while Martinez finished the night off with a 1-2-3 seventh.
“I told them it’s been a great week of baseball,” Howard said. “Hopefully we can carry that over into next week.”
Columbia will hit the road to face Florida High on Tuesday for a 6:30 p.m. start before returning home to play St. Augustine on Thursday at 7 p.m.