By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
SPRING GARDEN – If there was one inning the Spring Garden Panthers wished they could have back from Thursday’s Class 1A second round baseball playoff series against third-ranked Hubbertville, it was the very first inning in game one.
The Lions roared out of the gate quickly by scoring four runs, and the Panthers were playing catch up the rest of the way. They managed to make some things happen late, but still fell by the final of 8-5.
The momentum Spring Garden had found late in game one carried over early into the second game. The Panthers were up by two runs through 3 ½ innings, but Hubbertville tied the game in the bottom of the fourth. The Lions had recaptured the momentum, and they didn’t let it go in a 7-3 decision that ended Spring Garden’s season at 18-13.
“I felt the momentum shift in about the fourth inning (of game two),” Spring Garden coach Kyle Garmon said. “We come off the field defensively. It was still 2-0, and I said ‘We’ve got to score right now.’”
A leadoff walk to Dawson Ellzey went by the wayside as the next three Panthers went in order. Spring Garden did manage to push another run across the plate in the fifth, but the Lions came back with two more, and finished the game off with three runs in the bottom of the sixth.
The Lions not only got the timely hits, but they also got solid performances by their starting pitchers in both games. Both of them went the distance.
Blaize Wakefield earned the win in the first game. He scattered five runs on four hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
Landon Dodd delivered for the Lions in the second game. He allowed three runs on five hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
“I think we put the ball in play, just at somebody,” Garmon said. “They’re pretty good. We didn’t have our best stuff. Our pitching wasn’t perfect, but our pitching was good enough to win. It just seemed like we hit everything right at them. We didn’t have a whole lot of strikeouts. We hit the ball and they played really good defense. It kind of looked like us last week I thought.”
Sadler, Joel Hunter, Brady Ruark, and Eli Bates had the lone hits for Spring Garden in game one. Hunter and Sadler also walked, and Sadler drove in two runs in the bottom of the seventh with a single to center. Ben Baker suffered the loss.
Ceth Hollingsworth and Bryce Afshar led the Lions with three hits apiece in game one. Dodd and Kane Rushing both had a pair of hits. Rushing doubled in a run in the first and later scored. Braylon Hill homered in the top of the third.
“We responded by adding one (run), adding one (run), adding one (run), but we never could overcome that four runs we gave up at the beginning,” Garmon said.
Baker led the Panthers at the plate in game two by going 2-for-3 with a pair of run-scoring doubles. He also walked. Hunter also doubled. Zane Edwards and Hays Guthrie had the other two Panther hits.
Sadler suffered the loss after going the distance.
“Clayton pitched a good game. His stuff was working pretty good,” Garmon said. “He’s used to striking everybody out, but when you’re playing somebody like that, you’re not going to have the strikeouts, so you’ve got to play defense. They had a couple of well-placed hits that were the difference in the game probably.”
Dodd, Wakefield, Hill, and Cruz Kizzire each had a pair of hits for the Lions in game two. Wakefield doubled down the left field line in the bottom of the fourth. Cole Brand walked and singled.
Hubbertville (21-6) advances to next weekend’s quarterfinal round. The Lions will face Athens Bible, which swept Skyline 7-1 and 4-2 in other second round action on Thursday.
