Port St. Joe Beats Liberty County in Bottom of the Seventh

Last Thursday's district championship hosted by Liberty County remained close the entire night between the Port St. Joe Sharks and Liberty County Bulldogs.
Only in the bottom of the seventh did the Sharks manage to pull into the lead, winning 4-3.
To reach the district championship, Port St. Joe beat Wewahitchka 10-1 and Liberty County beat West Gadsden 9-5.
Both teams in the title game used their pitchers the complete game, Matt Gannon for the Sharks and Ryan Travis for the Bulldogs.
Gannon gave up five hits and two walks, striking out nine. Striking out six Port St. Joe players, Travis gave up four hits but walked eight.
Play was punctuated by unusual occurrences Thursday night, not least of which was a wild pitch by Gannon in the second inning.
Gannon threw clear over the batter, hard enough to bounce the ball off the brick backstop to himself in front of the mound. He threw out Scotty Brown, a base runner on second who tried to reach third on the wild pitch.
Liberty County seized the lead in the top of the third inning.
Gannon hit seven-hole hitter Jordan Reddick with a pitch, allowing Reddick the opportunity to come to third. Jeremy Shuler hit a fielder's choice to second base, but the Sharks were unable to beat Reddick at the plate.
Later Travis drove Shuler in with a grounder past the third baseman. The score might have continued escalating but Gannon shut the inning down with two strikeouts.
Noting that the team in general sharpened after Liberty County's early scores, Port St. Joe coach Mike Bullock said, "About the third inning Gannon settled into a groove and started locating better."
Answering with two runs of their own in the bottom of the third, the Sharks received plenty of help from Travis, who hit Levi Richter and then walked four-straight batters to bring in two runs for a Shark lead.
Derek Shuler bounced a grounder clear over Shark third baseman Chris Cochran's head to start the fourth inning. Derek Shuler reached third by stealing a base and utilizing a sacrifice bunt by Jared Barber. Reddick's short pop fly to centerfield was enough to score Derek Shuler, securing the Bulldogs the lead for another inning.
With a morale boost from three consecutive strikeouts by Gannon in the top of the fifth, Port St. Joe finally tied the game again in the bottom of the inning.
Leadoff hitter Jamie Bird walked, stealing two bases to put him in scoring position for Gannon's RBI single to right field.
Hit by pitch in the seventh inning and after stealing two bases, Tyrone Dawson scored a run on Cochran's RBI double to the left-center fence, earning Port St. Joe the District Championship.
"That was a big game for us, we treated it as a big game-it was a championship," Bullock said. "Our players didn't play flat, but it took a couple innings for them to see that Liberty County was going to fight.
"I'm proud of the way our guys battled. It was good for them to hear the crowd and feel the adrenaline; it'll prepare us for those later games when a bad day is your last game."