ARCOLA — Deer Creek School’s Bo Ray and Grant Tolliver came up clutch in the biggest moments on Thursday.
Trailing 3-2 to Regents of Oxford heading into the seventh and final inning, Bo Ray hit a double to drive in his brother Luke to tie the game. Then, Grant Tolliver hit a game winning sacrifice fly ball to left field to bring home Brayden Smith and give the Warriors a 4-3 victory in the second game of the opening round in the MAIS Class 3A playoffs. After defeating Regents of Oxford 15-1 on Tuesday, Deer Creek won the best-of-three series two games to none.
“I knew it was the ball game when it was in the air,” Tolliver said of his game-winning RBI. “This game showed we can dig deep and come out on top.”
Once the ball left Tolliver’s bat, Brayden Smith had no doubts he was going to score.
“I knew it was over when it was in the air,” he said.
Said Deer Creek head coach William Ray, “I told Grant to put the ball in play with their outfield playing shallow. We knew if we just got deep enough Brayden is very fast and would tag it up and that it would be all she wrote.”
“We came out and beat them 15-1 on Tuesday and sometimes when you do that you have expectations that this is going to be a cake walk. This team we played is young but they fought really hard. But for our boys to get down 2-0 and come back in the bottom of seventh is something special.”
Luke Ray got things started in the bottom of the seventh with a base hit to centerfield which was followed by a walk to Brayden Smith. Bo Ray’s double came with one out.
Ray also had a game-tying hit in the bottom of the third inning when his single drove home two runs to tie the game at 2-2.
The Warriors’ comeback was made possible by a gutty pitching performance by Hayden Smith who pitched a complete game. The right-hander allowed just five hits in the game and struck out five batters. Regents of Oxford’s Henry Edwards got the loss.
“I had to dig deep and find it and help my team out,” Hayden Smith, who is not the brother of Brayden, said. “I just had to keep my head up and keep pitching. I knew if we hit the ball, we can win.”
With the win in the opening round, the Warriors will take on the winner of the first-round series between Tunica Academy and Benton Academy next week in the second round. If Tunica wins it will have the home field advantage. If Benton wins, Deer Creek will have home field advantage.
“This is big for us,” Coach Ray said. “We have not won a playoff game since I was an assistant. I would say it has probably been five years since we have done this.”
