Long twirls another gem, but Ripley drops Game 3
PEARL – There would be no fairy tale ending, no ride off into the sunset for Ripley star Ty Long.
Long was once again masterful on the mound, only giving up one hit and no earned runs while striking out nine in six innings, but an error doomed the Tigers in a 2-0 Game 3 loss to Sumrall in the MHSAA Class 4A finals at Trustmark Park on Saturday.
Long finished the series with 27 strikeouts and no earned runs against.
“That’s baseball,” Ripley head coach Joel Gafford said. “Sometimes the ball doesn’t fall your way. Couldn’t be any more or less proud of our kids and what they accomplished this year. … Sad right now that we didn’t win, but we accomplished so much this year that nobody thought we could do.”
Long picked up from where he left off in Game 1, and neither side scored until the bottom of the fifth inning. Sumrall (34-5) had runners at the corners with two outs when the Bobcats hit a fly ball to deep center field for what should’ve been the third out. But the ball was dropped, and both runs came around to score.
Ripley (24-12) never found the runs to recover from the error.
With his coach’s arm wrapped around his shoulder after the game, Long was inconsolable.
“Wake up every day excited to go to baseball, I don’t get to go to baseball with my guys any more,” Long said. “But I know they love me. I know (Gafford) loves me. … I’d give my life for these guys, you know they’d do the same. It’s different at Ripley. They don’t understand over there, nobody understands. I wouldn’t trade it for nothing. I thank God for giving me the opportunity to be on this squad.”
“Everybody makes a mistake, we’re human. Nobody’s perfect, praise God,” Long added.
While Long was his usual dominant self, Sumrall starter Landon Hawkins kept up. Hawkins limited Ripley to four hits and no runs while striking out two. The win hadn’t fully sunk in yet for Sumrall coach Andy Davis.
“Just real proud of the guys,” he said. “Facing a good pitcher like that, it’s never easy. Of course, Landon Hawkins pitched his tail off, so that’s a legendary status today.”
Extra Bases
Big Inning: Sumrall took advantage of a Ripley error and scored both of the game’s runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Big Stat: Long only gave up one hit.
Coach Speak: “Just typical Ty. He wants the ball. If he can go, he wants the ball, and he’s going to do that every time. We’ve just got to score some runs for him.” – Gafford
