Vincent’s Aiden Poe walked into the Class 2A postgame press conference at Jacksonville State’s Rudy Abbott Field and had a fleeting thought.

“Last time I was in this room, we finished as the state runner-up,” he said.

That was 2023.

This year was different.

Poe pitched seven strong innings Tuesday and Landon Archer drove in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh as the top-ranked Yellow Jackets beat Pike Liberal Arts 2-1 to sweep the best-of-3 series and win the state title.

“Two years ago kind of lit a fire under us and then last year losing in the third round lit another fire,” shortstop Casen Fields said. “The end goal this year was to win state. No matter what, get that Blue Map.”

Mission accomplished, thought the Patriots didn’t make it easy.

After Vincent won Game 1 7-0 on Monday night in Oxford, Tuesday’s game was a pitcher’s duel between Poe and Pike Liberal’s Luke Barron. Barron allowed 5 hits and 2 runs in 6.1 innings. He struck out 5. Poe allowed 1 unearned run on 6 hits. He struck out 4 and walked just 1.

“That’s great baseball,” Vincent coach Timothy Junkins said. “Two really good pitchers.”

The game went to the bottom of the seventh tied 1-1. Poe, the overall Bryant-Jordan Scholarship winner who is headed to the Air Force Academy, led off with a solid single. Aiden Wills came in as the courtesy runner and advanced to second on Grayson Gulde’s groundout.

That brought up Archer, the winning pitcher in Game 1.

“In that moment, you just try not to be too big,” he said. “It’s a big moment, but you don’t want to be too big for it. It wasn’t a good day for me at the plate, but my teammates kept lifting me up. That played a big role in my confidence.”

Archer lined a single to left, scoring Wills with the winning run.

Archer was named MVP.

“They probably outhit us (6-5), but we got the hits when it mattered,” Junkins said. “I was proud of the guys. They kept competing. We made some great plays on defense and, when it mattered, our leaders stepped up again.”

Vincent finished 33-7. Pike Liberal, playing in its first AHSAA state championship after moving from the AISA, finished 22-17 after an impressive playoff run.

“Hats off to Vincent,” PLA coach Will Austin said. “I thought they played well and so did we. A couple of balls didn’t bounce our way. Sometimes, the ball doesn’t bounce your way in this game.”

Key stats: Vincent – Fields was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a walk. Grayson Gulde had 3 walks. Poe, Archer and Calvin Johnson had the Yellow Jackets’ other hits. Pike Liberal Arts – Pruitt Vaughn and Cole Garrott were each 2-for-3.

Controversy at first: Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth, Vincent seemed to have tied the game on Gulde’s RBI double down over the first base bag. The umpire at first, dancing out of the way of the hard hit ball, initially signaled a foul ball before switching his call to fair quickly. The four umpires gathered and the ball was ruled foul. Replays appeared to show it was fair. Barron pitched out of the inning with no damage.

“Honestly, I think it fired us up a little bit,” Junkins said. “I think Aiden came out the next inning and had about a 6-pitch inning.”

Did you know? Vincent won the third baseball title in school history. The Yellow Jackets also were champions in 1984 and 1985.

This post will be updated