The Champion Christian College Tigers baseball team got a walk-off homer in extra innings by junior outfielder Isaac Yearwood and a complete game shutout on the mound from sophomore pitcher Waylon Smith to take both ends of a doubleheader over the Dallas Christian College Crusaders at Majestic Park on Friday.
The Tigers won the first game 7-6 thanks to a big fifth inning in the come-from-behind win in game one. They then took the second game 10-0 with senior outfielder Tyler Bruner supplying some punch at the plate with a grand slam homer to break the game open in the bottom of the seventh inning.
“Overall, it was a pretty good day. It may not be our best game overall but we took care of business and got a couple of wins,” said Tigers coach Josh Clark, whose team went into Saturday’s series finale with Dallas Christian at Lakeside leading their conference with a 9-2 mark and 16-14 overall.
Nathan Harrison got the start on the mound for the Tigers in game one and went five and one-third innings while giving up five hits and three earned runs out of four allowed. He struck out five Crusaders while giving up four walks before giving way to freshman lefty Kayne Brantley. Brantley picked up the win by going the rest of the way, allowing four hits, one earned run and four walks in four and two-thirds innings of work.
At the plate, three of the Tigers’ first four hitters in junior lead off hitter Josiah Clark, Yearwood and senior first baseman Riley Burge all recorded multiple hits with two each. Senior third baseman Adon Dupre also had a pair of hits out of the No. 9 hole.
Neither team scored until the top of the fourth inning when the Crusaders got to Harrison for a couple of runs. They then added three more in the top of the sixth to force a pitching change.
In the bottom of the fifth, however, the Champion bats came alive to put up five runs as both teams accounted for a total of seven errors. Both teams added a run each in the seventh to set the stage for Yearwood to end the game in the bottom of the extra session.
“First game we came out a little bit flat,” Clark said. “We just didn’t have great approaches at the plate, but we kind of hung in there a little bit and eventually kind of scratched a run and broke open a big inning to tie the game up and send it into extra innings.
“We came up with a big hit late in the game and got a walk-off by Issac. It was a good, gutsy fight to get a win there.”
The nightcap proved to be less dramatic as Champion dominated from start to finish behind Smith. The first run came in the bottom of the third before the Tigers added two more in the fourth.
The dam finally broke in the bottom half of the next inning — highlighted by Bruner clearing the bases. Yearwood, who was 2-for-6 with an RBI in game one, went 2-for-3 and scored the final run of the day.
Bruner went 1-for-3 in the second game with five RBIs and senior centerfielder Jeremiah Sampson went 2-for-2 with an RBI and a walk, while scoring twice.
“The second game started a little slow, but we started swinging the bats and we broke it open pretty big,” Clark said. “It was a 4-0 game and then Bruner hit a grand slam. It was a kind of baffo grandslam to right field. That kind of broke the game wide open.”
