Northside’s Jehibar Vivas walks off Howard in the eighth in final home game of 2025

WARNER ROBINS — On a night where Northside’s seniors said goodbye to their home field, freshman Jehibar Vivas announced his arrival in style.

The Eagles (7-17) needed one more run in the bottom of the eighth to send the Howard Huskies home (3-17). Vivas stepped up to the plate with one out and the winning run on third base.

He took the first pitch, ball one. The second was foul, but fans at Dyson Field heard the clang of the bat on the third as the ball floated over Howard’s second baseman and dropped in center field.

Jeremiah Rozier brought the winning run across home plate to make it an 11-10 final, and the dugout emptied in a hurry as they made their way to first base to make Vivas the bottom of the dogpile. Soon after multiple Eagles carried him over to left field where coach Joey Walker addressed the team after their final home game in 2025.

“He’s a good one ain’t he,” Walker said with a grin stretching ear to ear. “He’s tough man. He’s just fearless. We’re excited about that joker.”

Three observations:

The future is bright

A handful of seniors played their last game at home on Wednesday, but there are a lot of returning players to be excited about.

The most notable being Emerson Rugama and Elijah Rozier, but Vivas has also made some noise in the last few games.

Aside from his walk off single he also pitched 2.1 innings to close out the game. He finished with 4 strikeouts and only gave up one earned run with no walks.

His velocity isn’t much to speak of as a freshman, but his ability to get the ball in the strike zone is as important as anything to Walker at this moment in time. He anticipates him to be instrumental next year and beyond.

“We’ve been playing him at second. We really don’t let him hit that often because he’s 4-foot-7, 100 pounds. He ain’t got much behind it,” Walker said. “But [he] came through with two hits tonight, including a walk off, smoked a line drive right there. For the future we see him anchoring second base, batting somewhere in the lineup if he keeps hitting like that.”

Another promising sign is his response to pressure. The Huskies’ dugout was loud for much of the game trying to throw off Northside’s pitchers.

There’s no telling how much it worked, but Vivas had no walks compared to the two pitchers that preceded him that combined for five.

“Then on the mound, I mean he’s just so consistent, I mean there’s no rattling him,” Walker said. “We got guys that are 18 years old out here sweating in their boots when the dugout starts chirping. I don’t think J-bear even hears ‘em. I don’t think he even has a clue it’s happening.”

A night full of almosts

Northside may have gone to extra innings against Howard, but they shouldn’t have. There were a lot of moments where they almost got it done, but didn’t.

They almost made a 5-3 throw to get the final out in the top of the 8th. But instead that runner eventually scored to take a 10-9 lead for Howard.

They almost escaped the top of the sixth inning with the lead, but an errant throw to third base scored two runners and tied the game at eight.

There were a lot of almosts, but not a lot of plays made when they needed them. It’s been a theme for Northside, and isn’t uncommon with programs at this stage in the rebuild.

Walker has talked about getting over the hump this season, and the thinks they’re getting close to finally getting over it.

“I think we’re almost there. I think we’re a team full of almost,” Walker said. “We’ve almost made that play. We’ve almost hit two or three home runs tonight. We’re just so close to bridging the gap from the team that’s got some ability to the team that performs consistently.”

Though the Eagles have made progress, Walker said it’s going to take more effort, more execution and more buy-in from the returners.

Where the game fell apart

Northside came out the gate putting up crooked numbers, but the offense tapered off after that as they struggled to hit off of Matthew Griffin.

Griffin had a lot of break on his curveball, and he hit some nasty spots in his 7.1 innings on the mound. Although the Huskies gave up 11 runs, only the walk-off run was earned for Griffin, who finished with 4 strikeouts.

The 10 Howard errors were mostly responsible for the Eagles’ offense, because they didn’t do particularly well hitting the ball according to Walker.

“We knew he’d fill up the strike zone. Knew it wouldn’t have a ton of velo on it, so we’d have to be a little patient, we’d have to let it travel a little, and we did not execute that very well,” Walker said. “We knew he had the big loop and breaking ball that would get you off on your front foot, and we struggled. Some of our better guys really, really struggled.”

Rugama, Elijah Rozier and Jeremiah Rozier were a combined 2-for-15 at the plate, and only two players finished with more than one hit — Vivas (2-for-2) and Caden Nelson (2-for-4).

“But we preach to our guys, good hitters hit fast pitchers and slow pitcher and lefties and righties,” Walker said. “So some of our guys got a little humbled tonight, but that’s okay, because humility is always a good thing especially for a teenage boy.”

As the Northside offense faded away, the Huskies clawed back into it and trailed 5-4 after three.

The Eagles tacked on three runs in the fourth and fifth to give them an 8-4 lead entering the sixth, but that’s when the wheels fell off.

An error with one out loaded the bases for Howard and a walk scored their first run in three innings.

An error scored two runs, and the leadoff hitter scored the tying run with a ball to shortstop. That prompted the third pitching change for Northside, Vivas.

“I think Howard was really, really scrappy. They’re a fast, really good base running team,” Walker said. “Our catcher’s been dealing with a strained UCL, and so they took advantage of that…so anytime they were able to put the ball in play it was basically two bags.”

“Then we made an ill-advised play that gave up two free ones,” he continued. “We gotta be more disciplined instead of trying to be so heroic on some things. We talk about being unselfish, so you don’t gotta make every play, just make the ones that come to you.”

UP NEXT

Northside still has to finish up their last region series against Thomas County Central. They will travel to Thomasville for the doubleheader on Friday, April 11 at 3 p.m.