Appalachian's epic comeback wins 1A State Baseball Title

The first state title in the history of Appalachian High School will never be forgotten. And that's partly because of the way it was won.

The Eagles trailed Brantley 10-3 going into the bottom of the seventh inning of Game 2 of the 1A State Finals at JSU's Jim Case Stadium. It looked like a third and deciding game in the series was imminent.

But four hits and four hit batsmen later, the Appalachian Eagles (31-4) were celebrating an 11-10 win and a very improbable, but unforgettable state title.

The big blow Tuesday came off the bat of Caden Jones in the seventh inning to drive in two runs to tie the game at 10-10. Jones then scored the winning run on a two-out infield error to climax the amazing comeback.

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The rally started when Logan Harvey was hit by a pitch on a 3-2 count. He stole second and scored on Cole Gargus’ RBI single to cut the Brantley lead to 10-4. Class 1A state championship series Talan Shirley drove his second run of the game with a single. Brantley coach Austin Brook switched pitchers and Reese Odom hit the next two batters Preston Martin and Camdyn Moore. The Bulldogs made another pitching change and center fielder Garrett Helms singled in two runs to cut the lead to 10-8.

That set up Jones’ triple which tied the game and then scored the winning run on winning pitcher Chris Heekin’s infield grounder. Heekin pitched the final two innings allowing three hits and two unearned runs to get the win.

"We've had a lot of comebacks you know, " Appalachian Head Coach Brandon Johnson said. "I think our guys you get a little momentum, and they had kind of hung around. Their starting pitcher was fantastic and we knew eventually if we could get to the bullpen we hit a lot of balls hard early in the game but you know it's almost a little bit beyond belief, I mean 8 runs in the 7th to win the state championship. Let's go out there and do it again. Man, it was awesome, it was awesome, it was fun. a lot of fun."