Woodlawn pitcher's comeback spurs Bears to back-to-back Arkansas 2A baseball titles with win over Bigelow

Cale Edmonds returns from elbow surgery on his non-throwing arm earlier this season to dominate Panthers.

By Jeff Halpern | Photos by Ted McClenning 

BENTON — Cale Edmonds missed most of the baseball season with Tommy John surgery on his non-throwing arm. However, he made his return a memorable one in Woodlawn’s 7-2 victory over Bigelow (15-9) for the Class 2A state championship Thursday morning at Panther Stadium.

Edmonds was named MVP of the state championship by throwing a complete game, allowing 2 runs — 1 earned — on 7 hits with 1 walk and 8 strikeouts while throwing 111 pitches allowing the Bears (29-6) to repeat.

“We had a couple errors early on, but I tried to be locked in and make my pitches and got ground balls and strikeouts,” said Edmonds. “This is a dream come true. I got hurt during the third game of the season and had Tommy John surgery, and it’s a blessing to be back on the field.”

Edmonds attributed his comeback to therapy in Monticello.

“Cale is a dude,” said Woodlawn head coach Tommy Richardson. “We knew he was wanting to come back, but the doctors wouldn’t let him throw until the regional tournament. There were times I wanted to take him out, but he talked his way back out there.”

Bigelow head coach Craig Neumeier was impressed with Edmonds’ performance.

“He pitched a gem and kept us off balance,” he said. “I didn’t think he’d throw 110 pitches. I was hoping we could get a few more hits and get him out early.”

While Edmonds dominated, the Bears had to overcome a 2-0 deficit in the first inning before turning the game around.

Bigelow started the game with Connor Curtis and Hunter Alexander getting singles and taking advantage of errors to take a 2-0 lead. Curtis scored when Edmonds’ pickoff throw to first was off the mark. Alexander scored on a missed catch by center fielder Jase Bishop. After that, Edmonds settled down and got Carter Alexander to fly out, Brant Tipton and Evan Ragan to strike out to end the inning in which he threw 26 pitches.

“We were a little rusty on our pickoffs,” said Richardson on the errors in the first inning.

Woodlawn came back with four in the bottom of the first. Parker Rotten led off with a walk, Emonds singled to right and Owen Stover tripled to right to score Rotten and Edmonds to tie the game. Jaxson Chase followed with a check-single to to left to score Stover to make it 3-2. After Case stole second. He stole third and scored on a bad throw by catcher Carter Alexander to make it 4-2.

“It seemed like the first inning, we got a couple and seemed to be ok, but Woodlawn didn’t blink,” said Neumeier. “I think the one thing that hurt us was the size of the ballpark. Last week at Bee Branch, we played in a smaller park and hit some home runs. This Park (320 down the lines, 355 into the alleys and 375 to center field) is a lot bigger.”

Woodlawn put the game away in the third inning with three more runs. Stover walked and Case singled and both advanced on a wild pitch by Hunter Alexander. With Bigelow conceding a run, Dylan Butler hit a routine ground ball to the second baseball Curtis, who made a bad throw to first allowing Stover and Case to score to make it 6-2.

“That was a tough play,” said Neumeier. “He’s made that play a million times and everything got away from us after that.”

Jayden Wilmoth followed with a singled up the middle to score Butler to make it 7-2 to end the scoring.

Woodlawn had a chance to come back in the fourth when Tipton and Ragan singled to lead off the inning. After a sacrifice bunt by Rhett Neumeier, Edmonds struck out Braden Winningham and Ethan Hall to end the inning.

Edmonds then retired 11 of the last 13 batters he faced to end the game.

Case led the Bears by going 2-for-3 and scoring 2 runs. Stover went 1-for-2 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI.

Hunter Alexander went 2-for-3 and scored a run and took the loss on the mound, allowing 7 runs — 5 earned — in 3 innings with 4 strikeouts and 3 walks. Ragan went 2-for-3.