By Tyler F. Thompson (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
WILLARD — Willard Tigers senior third baseman Jacob Hearon has fewer than five starts to his credit this season.
But for those in attendance Tuesday evening, no one would have guessed. The senior connected for the game-winning hit in the bottom of the seventh, as the Tigers stormed back from being down 5-1 just two innings prior to take the Central Ozark Conference tilt 6-5 against the Nixa Eagles at Willard.
Willard moves to 17-3 on the season and currently sits as the top team in Class 5, while the Eagles drop to 13-9.
Hearon, a man of few words, prefers to let his play on the diamond do the talking.
With two on and one out in the seventh, Hearon dug into the dirt in the box and waited for his pitch.
“He [Nixa’s Wyatt Vincent] wasn’t locating his off-speed, so I knew a fastball was coming,” Hearon said. “I was just waiting for it to be in my zone. And then it was in my zone.”
The Tigers struck first, in the first, going up 1-0 on Cameron Jennings’s solo blast.
Plate discipline came and went early on, as the Eagles capitalized in the fourth, as Wyatt Vincent blasted a 3-run shot, giving his Eagles the 4-1 lead.
One inning later, the Eagles, behind the solid pitching of their starter, Jackson Gamble, appeared to be in the driver’s seat, as they played their fifth run of the night.
Up 5-1 in the top of the fifth, it appeared the Eagles would notch their 14th win of the season.
The Tigers, however, never received such a memo.
Jennings, once again, connected for the round-tripper, this time a 2-run shot.
And all of a sudden, the Tigers were in business.
“We just play really well from behind,” Hearon said. “We have done it all year. We have probably been down in most games this season. We always come back.”
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The senior does not lack confidence, which was on full display.
“I have always been confident in myself,” he said. “I have always been a good hitter, but I just needed opportunities. Now that I am getting them, I am taking advantage of them.”
The win sums up the Scott McGee era, as the skipper led his team to a state championship just three years ago, and the gritty, powerful Tigers are known to surge at the appropriate time.
And, on this night, that tradition continued.
McGee said the back-and-forth affair is exactly what he expected.
“This has really turned into a good rivalry game for both teams,” McGee said. “It seems like every year it is a one-run game. It makes both programs a lot better.”
At 17-3, the win is the epitome of the 2024 campaign, the veteran skipper said.
“Honestly, we have done whatever it takes to win,” McGee said. “There have been games where we haven’t hit at all, and we won 2-1. We have had games … we won 15-14 over the weekend. Today, our offense wasn’t great early, and then we were just relentless late.”
Relentless they were as the Tigers plated five runs in the final three frames.
Offensively:
Willard: Jennings – 3 RBI (2 home runs).
Jacob Hearon – 3 RBI (solo HR)
Nixa:
Adam McKnight – solo HR.
Wyatt Vincent – 3-run HR.
WP: Cameron Jennings (relieved Larson in the fifth).
ND: Hayden Larson.
LP: Wyatt Vincent (relieved Jackson Gamble in the sixth).
