9-run inning seals Wesleyan baseball title: ‘This means everything to us’

ROME — Wesleyan baseball coach Mark Pope couldn’t have scripted Monday any better.

The rain held off. Students and fans turned out in droves to support his Wolves team. Oh, and by the way, Wesleyan dominated the deciding Game 3 of the GHSA Private School state championship series, crushing Holy Innocents’ 14-1 at Rome’s AdventHealth Stadium to claim the school’s sixth baseball title.

It was also the first title for Pope in his second year at the helm of the Wolves, and he had a hard time putting into words how much this year’s team meant to him.

“Our guys came out ready to fight today, and things just fell our way,” Pope said. “I’m so proud of how our guys played, and the way that our pitchers were able to hold down that Holy Innocents’ offense was something special. And oh my gosh, I tell you what, I’m gonna miss the heck out of this senior class. … They are an incredible group of guys.”

The player of the game — and, really, the player of the weekend — was Wolves senior catcher Ryley Webb, who had a game to remember in his final high school outing. He finished the game 3-for-4 with a single, a double, a triple and five RBIs. He was 3-for-7 with a pair of RBIs in Friday’s series-opening split, which saw Wesleyan win 9-6 in the opener before losing 2-0 in the nightcap.

“It’s just so awesome to go out as a state champ. Our whole senior class has been here since middle school or even lower school, and we’ve all been battling together for this for so long,” Webb said. “This means everything to us. … This was the goal we were working towards for a long time, and to see it happen is just amazing. I feel like momentum was on our side the whole game because of our fans and our parents and the student section. … They helped keep our energy up. I knew we could break it open, it was just a matter of time.

Holy Innocents’ (30-9) actually took the lead in Monday’s rubber game just three batters in, when Grant Bradley’s RBI single scored Taylor Fuller to give the Golden Bears a 1-0 lead. But no one would have guessed that the Wolves would answer with 14 consecutive runs.

It started with a three-run third, when Maddox McCollum had an RBI groundout that was followed by a mammoth RBI triple to center by Webb. Knox Bingham then reached on an error that allowed courtesy runner Ethan King to score, making it 3-1.

Wesleyan (27-7) added two more runs in the fifth on an RBI single by Webb and a run-scoring double by Bingham to increase the lead to 5-1.

But the floodgates truly opened in the top of the sixth inning. The Golden Bears burned through four relief pitchers and Wesleyan’s offense exploded for nine runs on seven hits, three walks and a hit batter. Carter Hayes had a two-run single in the frame, Webb hit a bases-loaded double to left, Andrew Waite had an RBI single, Brice Gillis rapped a two-run single and Coleman Eldridge drew a bases-loaded walk.

After that, the outcome was academic, and when Waite caught a lazy fly to left to end the game, the jubilant Wesleyan players and coaches and staff formed a huge dogpile by the pitcher’s mound, dousing each other with water bottles to celebrate after a long journey that ended with the school’s first baseball championship since 2022.

“The players on this team are all best friends, and they are all out there fighting for each other,” Pope said after the game, as he watched his team take photos with their trophy and medals under a light drizzle that started to fall. “They pick each other up, and it’s been truly special to watch. Our guys stuck with their approach today and they got the job done, and I’m just so happy for them.”