With their thrilling, dog pile-inducing win over Northeast Texas Community College on Tuesday night, the Angelina College Roadrunners got the hard part of the journey out of the way.
By no means are the ‘Runners coasting into the season’s final three games.
AC capped a three-game sweep of the Eagles with a wild, seven-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning, getting the game-winning RBI from Alex Walker in AC’s 10-9 win. When Chase Adams stomped the plate for the final run, the Roadrunners clinched a spot in next week’s Region XIV Conference Tournament in Sugar Land.
Beginning today, AC will close out the regular season by hosting Paris College. Perhaps in another season, these final contests would be meaningless for a team having already secured its place in the post season, but now the Roadrunners are fighting for a higher seed. They certainly can’t expect the Dragons to cooperate.
Paris enters the weekend two games back of AC. The Roadrunner can clinch the third seed in the East Zone by winning just one of the three games. However, a sweep on the wrong end allows the Dragons to vault into the third spot while dropping Angelina College into the fourth position.
Giving even more motivation to Paris is a Bossier Parish team hovering a single game back of Paris. The Cavaliers close out the season against NTCC hoping for the chance to overtake Paris and eliminate the Dragons from playoff contention.
Three games remaining in the regular season, and more than enough drama to last until the final out.
The Roadrunners host Paris on Friday in a single, nine-inning game starting at 3 p.m. The series concludes on Saturday with a doubleheader scheduled for a 1 p.m. start. The Roadrunners will celebrate Sophomore Day prior to Saturday’s opening game.
Sports Information Director Gary Stallard, who also serves as a Liberal Arts Instructor, begins his eleventh season with Angelina College. Following a career as a U.S. Marine, Stallard completed his bachelor’s degree at Stephen F. Austin University, where he majored in English and Journalism. For more than 16 years, he has worked as a sports writer/columnist/photographer for the Lufkin Daily News; he continues to contribute free-lance articles on occasion. Stallard has won several awards for writing, including the Golden Hoops Award for basketball writing in 2003, Regional Sports Writer of the Year in 2004, and the Texas Press Association’s first-place award for column writing in 2007 and in 2014. He has also done basketball, football and baseball radio and live streaming play-by- play and color commentary for an ESPN affiliate. Currently Stallard serves as play-by-play broadcaster for AC basketball, baseball and softball games.
Prior to arriving at Angelina College, Stallard taught English at Lufkin High School for four years. He currently teaches Developmental Writing classes at AC. He and his wife Susan live in Lufkin.