How Saltillo baseball flipped the script on Pascagoula to force a Game 3 in Class 5A
After cruising to a 12-1 victory in Game 1 against Saltillo, the Pascagoula baseball team hit some turbulence in Game 2 at Trustmark Park on Thursday.
Saltillo starting pitcher Ben Webb tossed a complete-game, one-hit shutout in a 4-0 victory Thursday night, keeping the Tigers alive in the Class 5A state title series.
Pascagoula (21-17) and Saltillo (25-11) will play a third game to decide the Class 5A state championship at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
The only hit that Webb allowed was a one-out single to Rhodes Randle in the fourth inning. He struck out seven and walked four, closing out the game with a perfect seventh to give the Tigers the momentum in the three-game series.
“He’s pitched that well all year for us,” Saltillo coach Eric Reynolds said. “He competes when he goes out there.
“Everybody nicknamed him ‘Big Game Benji.’ When his breaking ball and changeup work, he’s really effective. He’s not going to overpower with velocity, but he’s a pitcher. Tonight was just another example of going out and competing and hitting spots.”
The Panthers struggled to get a good read on Webb all night.
“His curveball was loopy, way slower than his fastball. His fastball moves a little,” Pascagoula freshman pitcher Griffin Wells said.
Webb did a good job of not allowing the batter to see the ball well out of his hand.
“He kind of hid it behind his back,” Wells said.
It was a remarkable change of fortunes for Saltillo, which struggled mightily on the mound in Game 1.
“Their pitcher pitched extremely well, give them a lot of credit,” Pascagoula coach Richie Tillman said. “They jumped on us early, did what they needed to do after what happened (in Game 1).”
Griffin Wells recovers after a slow start for ‘Goula
Wells struggled with his control early and looked a little off compared to his other postseason outings. In six innings, he gave up four runs on seven hits while striking out one and walking four.
Wells had given up three runs in his previous 23 postseason innings — all wins.
“I was trying to find the zone, but I kept missing,” Wells said. “I just didn’t have my stuff at all.”
Tillman credits Wells for finding his way past his early struggles to hold Saltillo, which had nine hits, in check.
“He did a great job, settled in,” Tillman said. “He was a little nervous as a ninth grader. We’re proud of what he’s done. He’s a huge reason why we’re at this point. He battled and hung in there.”
What’s next for Saltillo and Pascagoula?
Tillman wasn’t sure who would be his starting pitcher in Game 3 on Saturday, but he left open the possibility of bringing back Game 1 starter Brayden Scott, a sophomore right-hander who tossed six innings on Tuesday.
“We’ll look and see. We don’t know our situation right now, but we’ll look and see who feels the best,” Tillman said.
Reynolds plans to put senior right-hander Ian Dillon on the mound on Saturday.
Pascagoula has twice bounced back from losses in the playoffs to advance and Tillman believes that trend will continue.
“We don’t play two bad games in a row. We don’t,” Tillman said. “We’ve lost some games in the playoffs and come right back and played extremely well. That’s not going to happen. We’ll come out to play.”
This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 10:07 PM.
