It was big and timely offense along with a strong pitching outing from Thorn Alley that propelled the Southeast Guilford Falcons to a 11-1 win over the Randleman Tigers at the Farm Bureau Insurance Invitational on Saturday night in Greensboro.
This was the third time this season that the Falcons, tournament hosts and defending champions, had taken on the Tigers. The first two times, Randleman bested the Falcons.
But the third time was a charm for Southeast.
Southeast looked to senior Thorn Alley for a big pitching performance on a big stage.
Randleman looked to have Alley figured out after a shaky first inning. Alley gave up a hit to the Tigers’ Ramsey Petty and walked Gunner Gantt with one out in the first.
The Tigers moved the runners to scoring position and threatened to take an early lead; however, they were unable to capitalize on the opportunity and grounded out of the first.
Once Alley got past what he called “jitters” in the first inning, he settled in and kept his team in the game.
The two teams remained tied at 0 until the bottom of the third when the Falcons rode the momentum they had gained early and began the scoring.
Jarret Alexander go the offense going and Justin Guy had an RBI hit as the Falcons broke the deadlock and scored the first run of the game.
The second run scored as Randleman’s pitcher, Zac Kemp, and his catcher, Chase Newby, seemed to get crossed up resulting in a passed ball that scored Guy.
The bottom of the third turned into a long, uncharacteristic night for the Tigers as the Falcons began to hit their stride.
Thorn Alley went back to work for the Falcons and shut down the Tigers as they tried to mount a comeback in the top of the fourth innning. He retired the Tigers in order putting the bats back in Southeast’s hot hands.
The Falcons continued to figure out Kemp in the fourth. They mounted another three runs, tagging the lefty for two hits, and increased their lead to 5-0. It was all Falcons through four.
The Tigers’ senior shortstop, Bailey Welch, made his imprint on the game in the fifth when he squared up a 3-1 pitch from Alley and blasted what had been the longest home run of the tournament to that point. Welch, incredibly, wasn’t done. He flashed the leather in the bottom half of the inning on a ground ball and then flipped the ball with his glove to teammate Matt Kemp to get a runner at second.
Aside from the bomb from Welch, Randleman’s offense continued to struggle in the top of the fifth and Southeast’s bats went right back to work.
The Falcons knocked to the beat of the same drum in the bottom of the fifth as they mounted three more runs, increasing the lead to 8-1.
The Tigers brought on Chase Web to relieve Zac Kemp after five complete innings.
Web retired the first man he faced, but the Falcons were back to the top of their order.
Webb hit the Falcons’ Justin Guy before the big blow of the game, and tournament, a Devin Bartley 2-run homer.
Bartley’s homer was followed by a Jaylen Guy hit and Noah Marley played the Tiger killer as he drove in the walk-off 11th run in the bottom of the sixth.
Thorn Alley went the distance on the mound for Southeast, pitching six innings and giving up four hits, walking one, striking out four Tigers, and Randleman scored once on the Welch solo homer.
The Falcons won the Farm Bureau Invitational Championship with the win. Southeast defended their 2016 title with big offense in the final game. This is the third time in the six-year history of the tournament that the Falcons have left downtown Greensboro champions.
Justin Guy and Thorn Alley were the recipients of the Farm Bureau scholarship, awarded to usually one senior from both teams. The two Falcons will share the $1,000 scholarship offered by the Title Sponsor. Bailey Welch received the money for the Randleman Tigers.
Southeast head coach and tournament director, Dave Beasley, was all smiles as his team left First National Bank Field the champions. once again in 2017.
“(Randleman) didn’t play as well as they had been playing, our bats came alive, and we took advantage of any mistake they made,” Beasley said of the performance.
“When you do those things and get the pitching performance we got tonight, it equals a win,” he added.
Bailey Welch’s performance was the shining light for the Randleman Tigers as they finished in second place in the tournament with a record of (2-1) in the tournament.
“My first couple of at bats, I struggled,” Welch said. “I got with the coaches and made some adjustments and trusted the plan. In my last at bat it really paid off.”
Welch’s head coach said that the team looks forward now, and will try to get back on the winning side when they take the field again Tuesday.
“We didn’t capitalize on any at bats, or when we had runners in scoring position, and that’s what happens when you don’t capitalize,” the Randleman leader, Jake Smith, said. “(Southeast) is a good ball club. We just want to keep battling and look towards the last couple weeks of the regular season and into our postseason play.”
Both teams will do what they can to ready their troops as the regular season winds down and the postseason begins in the next couple of weeks.
WP: Thorn Alley- 6IP, R, 4H, 4K, BB
LP: Zac Kemp- 5IP, 8R, 7H, 7K, BB
RAN: Bailey Welch (1-3) HR, RBI
SEG: Justin Guy (2-3) RBI, 3R; Devin Bartley (1-3) HR, 2RBI; Noah Marley (2-3) RBI, 2R (walkoff RBI); Ryan Douglas (2-3) R; Jarret Alexander (3-3) 2B, RBI, R