Three-Peat!

That's the word the Wallace Govs were shouting after their victory over the Coastal Alabama North Coyotes Saturday afternoon. It came down to the very last game of the season.

Wallace started the day needing to win one of their two games against the Coyotes in order to claim the conference championship. Things didn't start out so well as the Govs dropped the first game 9-3.

With literally everything on the line, Clint Lafferty came through on the mound, and the Govs got some big hits. The result was a 10-3 win for Wallace. It marked the third consecutive conference championship for the Govs. In other words, a three-peat.

The Govs' win accomplished a lot of things. First, it gave the Govs the championship. Second, it knocked Coastal out of the tournament. Third, by the Govs knocking Coastal out, that means LBW of Andalusia is now in. The Saints finished in sixth place, earning the final spot in tournament play.

Lastly, after all the wins and losses on the day, the Enterprise State Boll Weevils finished in second place. That means they join Wallace as one of the two teams to earn a first-round bye.

"It's a good feeling, especially considering the way we started," Coach Ryan Ihle said of the Govs winning another conference title. "The guys battled tough. It was never really pretty in some situations. But when you win a conference regular season, it speaks volumes about the players and their efforts throughout the year. It doesn't take one person. It's a team thing."

Perhaps the happiest man on the team was Clint Lafferty. After going through some difficulties earlier in the year, Lafferty came through in the biggest game of the year. Lafferty tossed a complete game, giving up six hits but did not walk a single batter.

"This feels great, especially since at the beginning of the year I was struggling," Lafferty said. "It really took a lot out of me to stay focused and not get down on myself and give up and keep grinding each and every day and get better every day. It's finally paying off. It just feels good to win. It feels good to do good for my team."

When asked how he was able to maintain his composure knowing this was the biggest game of the year, Lafferty said "Honestly, I just went into it thinking it was just another game. I was thinking it's not anything bigger than I'm used to. I think that really helped and taking deep breaths before going on the mound every inning. That really helped in slowing down my heartbeat."

Here's how the game unfolded. Lafferty gave up one run in the top of the first inning, but his teammates quickly got that run back in the bottom half. Kason Gleaton hit a long sacrifice fly to centerfield that barely missed getting out of the yard. It scored Makhi Buckley, who had walked.

In the second inning, the Govs put the game away. This time, Gleaton didn't miss his homerun. He hit a two-run blast that was part of a six-run inning. Also part of the scoring was a two-RBI double from JT Thigpen, an RBI single from Evan Taylor, and an RBI sac fly from Buckley.

The Coyotes got two of the runs back in the fourth. But that was as close as they would get. Thigpen and Gleaton made sure of that. Thigpen had another RBI hit in the seventh, this one a single to centerfield. Gleaton hit his second homerun of the game, this one a two-run shot over the centerfield fence.

Game one on Sophomore Day didn't get off to a good start. Grant Hodges gave up three hits, hit a batter, and the Govs committed an error—and that was all in the first inning. The Coyotes scored three runs in the opening inning.

Wallace quickly answered back in the bottom of the inning by scoring three runs of their own. A ground out from Blake Wynn plated Buckley for the first run. Three batters later, Jackson Clyatt knocked in Gleaton with run number two. On the overthrow to first base in an attempt to get Clyatt, Thigpen also came around to score. That knotted the game at 3-3.

That was the good news for the Govs. The bad news was, they didn't score again. Meanwhile, the Coyotes added a run in the second, another run in the third, and put the game away in the fifth inning by scoring four runs.

The next time the Govs take the field will be Thursday at the ACCC Tournament in Montgomery. By being the number one seed, the Govs do not have to play on opening day Wednesday.