EASTLAKE, Ohio — A team without a school isn’t going to quit.
Birmingham Southern is still going strong.
The Panthers, who continue to play despite their schools being permanently closed, kept their national championship hopes alive with a come-from-behind 9-7 win over Randolph-Macon in the Division III World Series on Saturday night.
Jackson Webster hit a two-run walk-off home run in the ninth inning to give Birmingham-Southern, a team whose heartwarming story quickly captured the attention of sports fans across the nation, an almost surreal victory.
“It’s a baseball miracle, isn’t it?” Webster said. “The story isn’t over yet.”
The Panthers squandered a 4-0 lead and fell behind 7-4, but in the eighth inning, they tied the game with three consecutive pinch-hitter hits.
And then number 9, a moment that seemed like something out of a Hollywood script or a Disney movie.
After walking Andrew Dutton, Webster hit a two-run homer in the first inning but took a terrible swing at the first pitch — a swing so bad, so uncharacteristic, that Webster came off the plate and pounded his chest while apologizing to coach Jan Weisberg.
Webster didn’t miss the next pitch.
He caught a floating curveball and smashed it over the left-field wall for a home run, sparking wild celebrations on the field and in the stands at Classic Park.
As he rounded third base and excited teammates greeted him at home plate, a raucous group of members of the school’s Sigma Chi fraternity, who have stuck to their guns when the going got tough, danced in the aisles.
It was another memorable moment in a season full of memorable ones for Birmingham Southern and a team united by adversity.
“It’s just true courage,” said Weisberg, who is in his 17th season at the school and has faced challenges he never imagined. “The fighting spirit of our players is what we’re talking about tonight.”
The story gets more interesting by the day and has been chronicled by a team of documentary filmmakers who have captured the team’s unbridled joy.
Webster said the Panthers can feel the eyes on them, along with the support from people who empathize with their feelings of playing for a school they loved but that is now gone.
“It’s a tough reality to accept,” Webster said. “You go into the game with the mindset that you have nothing to lose because you have nothing to go back to. It’s hard to beat a team that has nothing to lose. I think that’s why we were so calm today despite all the adversity we’ve had.”
“And it’s pretty cool to have all those cameras around.”
Birmingham Southern, which lost in the national title game in 2019, advanced through the double-elimination tournament and will face the loser of Salve Regina and Wisconsin-Whitewater on Sunday.
Birmingham Southern Railway passengers may find it hard to get a good night’s sleep given the desolate scene outside their charter bus.
After losing their season opener to Salve Regina on Friday, Birmingham-Southern University officially closed for the first time since 1856 due to financial difficulties, leaving the Panthers facing a win-or-lose situation to continue their season and continue the university’s traditions.
The Panthers trailed 7-0 in Friday’s game before surrendering, but they took a 3-0 lead in the first inning on a two-run homer by Webster and a solo homer by Charlie Banks that rumbled off a sign offering free car washes to Lake County Captains fans.
But Randolph-Macon caught up in the seventh and led by three in the eighth, but then the Panthers committed two wild pitches and things started to fall apart to the point that it looked like both Birmingham Southern’s season and program were over.
Weisberg expected the worst.
“You can’t help but feel like this is how it’s going to end,” he said, “but I’ll admit that in those brief moments between innings it did feel that way, especially with everything this team has been through and everything that was hanging over our heads.
“I started thinking about what to say. Would I be able to stay calm? And I told myself stop, stop.”
His team’s efforts restored his faith in a comeback he’ll never forget.
Weisberg’s 82-year-old father, Jan, agreed, joking that he expected nothing less from his son’s team.
“Definitely,” Weisberg said with a wink.
There’s no room for error, but the Panthers haven’t been under pressure for months, which is a no-brainer considering what they’ve been through. Once the school decision was made, the BSC players took it upon themselves to play strong until the end.
Under Weisberg’s steady guidance, Birmingham-Southern High School’s summer boys have played with ease between the free throw lines for months, ever since they learned schools would close in late March.
Baseball has brought them together and helped them get through what some on the team described as like losing a family member.
Since the announcement in March that a $30 million loan from the state of Alabama would not be granted and a settlement would have to be reached, it has been an emotional journey for Birmingham-Southern High School players, parents, alumni, faculty and staff and anyone with any connection to the liberal arts college.
“At first I was pretty sad,” said Cole Steadman, one of the players from the 2019 team who came to support this special edition of the Panthers. “I was pretty shocked to hear the school was closing, but it was special to see the community come together.”
