It was one of the biggest comeback wins seen at the Civic Center this season and it happened Tuesday evening in the second semifinal game of the night between Fully Loaded and Hoover & Son Insurance.
Fully Loaded fired off an offensive assault and its defense held Hoover & Son Insurance in check for all of two innings by a score of 12-2 through the middle of the third.
Somehow Hoover and Son Insurance found the motivation it needed to climb back from the 10-run deficit and claim the lead to win by a final score of 15-13.
In the top of the fourth inning, Collin Panter reached base on balls. A strikeout and a ground ball for an out came but allowed Panter to score and made it a 13-5 game. Jathan Bogle drew the second walk of the inning but was followed by a strikeout and cut the Fully Loaded inning short.
In the bottom half of the fourth, Gavin Mason led the inning off with a walk. After the first out, Kobe Cagle and Harley Hernandez reached base on balls. Gabriel Bowers walked and a run crossed the plate. Mason scored first and the score was 12-6. Justus Majors and Bryan Holguin both picked up base hits and the score went to 12-8. Nathan Elrod was hit by a pitch and took his spot at first base. Before the final two outs were made Hoover & Son Insurance had pulled within one run at 13-11 as the inning came to a close.
In the top of the fifth, Fully Loaded went down in order.
In the bottom of the fifth, Hoover & Son Insurance went right back to work at the plate with the bats still warm from the previous inning. Three walks by Mason, Ethan Basham, and Cagle loaded the bases for Hoover & Son Insurance.
Fully Loaded responded with back-to-back strikeouts but it stopped there. Majors drew his second walk of the game. Holguin, Elrod, and Forth put the ball on the ground and four more runs crossed in the bottom of the fifth and Hoover & Son Insurance claimed the lead at 15-13.
Fully Loaded was in shock and headed to the plate for its last at-bat. The Hoover & Son Insurance defense delivered. Three consecutive plays on defense retired the side for the second straight inning, including a runner thrown out trying to steal second.
In the opening two innings of the game Fully Loaded unloaded its arsenal and capitalized on the mistakes by Hoover & Son Insurance. They took an early 9-2 lead.
By Hoover & Son didn’t buckle and produced a comeback win that will be talked about for quite some time. Hoover & Son Insurance defeated Fully Loaded by a final score of 15-13 and will face Southern Standard in the championship game tonight at 5:30 p.m.