Saturday split
- Updated: March 13, 2021
Baseball roundup: Saks, Wellborn split second-day area doubleheader; Piedmont splits dramatic twin bill, Ohatchee stages late rally and more
SATURDAY’S SCORES
Alexandria 10, Fort Payne 7
Alexandria 6, North Jackson 5
Bob Jones 10, Pleasant Valley 1
Faith Christian 6, Gaylesville 5
Faith Christian 10, Winterboro 0
Ohatchee 12, Jacksonville 11
Southside 5-6, Piedmont 4-7
Spring Garden 15, Weaver 2
Saks 9-7, Wellborn 4-10
Winfield 8, Pleasant Valley 1
By East Alabama Sports Today
Saks and Wellborn both got something out of their split doubleheader Saturday.
Saks got a much-needed 9-4 victory in the opener, earning a split of the two games that count in the area standings. Wellborn won the nightcap 10-7 to salvage a split of the day and pick up the tiebreaker in the event if comes to that at the end of the season.
“There have been times since I’ve been coaching here that it’s come down to the tiebreaker game,” Wellborn coach Nick Burns said. “Of course, every game we play regardless of when it is means something to us. We never step on the field and the words ‘this game doesn’t matter’ come out of our mouths.
“To come into the second game we had to get our energy up. We wanted to put it in our favor if it comes down to that.”
Both teams came from behind to get their victories. They moved the series up to avoid the forecasted inclement weather next week. Wellborn won the series opener Thursday.
In Game 1 Saturday, Saks bounced back from a first-pitch leadoff homer by Beau Neely and a 4-0 deficit. The Wildcats tied the game with five straight hits in the third, took the lead on Connor Martin’s RBI single to deep short in the fourth and then batted around for four more in the fifth.
Martin pitched a complete game after the rough start – giving up only four hits after the second inning – and had three hits at the plate. His fielders helped him by turning a pair of double plays.
“We had to take care of the first one, which was so important,” Saks coach Wes Ginn said. “We had a 10-inning game Thursday, but we never had the lead and put the pressure on them. Today, we finally got the lead and put the pressure on them. That’s what I told the kids: Now the pressure is back on them instead of us.”
Wellborn took a 3-0 lead in the nightcap, but fell behind 5-4 after three innings. The Panthers took the lead with four in the fifth on RBI singles by JoJo Wyatt, Cam Ingram, Colby Boyd and Brennan Talley.
Wyatt went 3-for-3 with two RBIs. Ingram and Talley both had two hits and two RBIs. Rickey Garrett had two hits and Clay Rucker had two RBIs for Saks.
Ohatchee 12, Jacksonville 11: The Indians scored four runs in the top of the seventh after Jacksonville erased their 8-2 lead with a big inning in the fifth. Brent Honaker had an RBI single and Carson Tittle a run-scoring double in the rally.
Honaker went 3-for-5 and Tittle went 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Devin Howell, Justin Powell, Aiden Simpson and Bryce Noah all had two hits for Ohatchee.
The Golden Eagles took the lead with a nine-run fifth inning highlighted by Tito Canales’ two-run single and Coleman Oliver’s two-run double on consecutive at-bats. Canales and Oliver both had two hits in the inning. Oliver went 3-for-4 with three RBIs.
Southside 5-6, Piedmont 4-7: Speedster Austin Estes scored all the way from first when Southside misplayed Jack Hayes’ grounder to third with two outs in the bottom of the eighth to give the Bulldogs a dramatic split of their doubleheader.
The Bulldogs tied the game with four in the bottom of the seventh. Noah Reedy singled home the first two runs of the inning, another scored on an error and Jadon Calhoun drew a one-out walk to bring home the tying run.
In the opener, the Panthers tied the game in the seventh and took the lead in the eighth on Aulden Battles’ RBI single, their third straight hit of the inning. The Bulldogs took a 4-3 lead in the sixth when Noah Reedy singled home a run and speedy Austin Estes scored on Sean Smith’s suicide squeeze.
The Bulldogs had bases loaded twice earlier in the game and couldn’t break it open.
Alexandria 10, Fort Payne 7: Sam Wade scored from second when Fort Payne misplayed Eli Barnes’ grounder to third in the sixth inning to snap a 7-7 tie and the Valley Cubs added two more in the seventh to pull away. Relievers Jake Upton and Ryan Ritchie kept Fort Payne off the board in the sixth and seventh to preserve the victory.
Faith Christian 6, Gaylesville 5: Brodie Dodson threw his hands at a two-strike pitch and singled home Kash Sharma with two outs in the fifth to give the Lions a come-from-behind walk-off win. The Lions trailed 5-4 after two innings, but tied it on Dodson’s second homer of the game leading off the fourth.
Faith Christian 10, Winterboro 0: Will Smith’s two-run triple highlighted a six-run first inning and Colton Pahman made it stand with a five-inning one-hitter. With his grandfather coming from 400 miles away to watch him play for the first time in four years, Pahman put on a show. He threw 51 pitches, 39 for strikes. The only runner he allowed was a fourth-inning double by Brody Hamm after retiring the first 11 batters he faced.
Spring Garden 15, Weaver 2: The Panthers pulled away from a close game with six runs in the fourth and again in the fifth to wrap it up in five innings. Weaver tied the game on Devin Anderson’s two-run single in the bottom of the first, but Spring Garden regained the lead with a run in the third.
Chapel Pope had two hits and three RBIs for Spring Garden. Chaz Pope, Ryley Kirk and Grayden Guthrie each drove in a pair of runs. Elijah Smith had two of Weaver’s three hits.
Bob Jones 10, Pleasant Valley 1: The Patriots broke a 1-1 tie with three runs in the home second after PV tied it in the top of the inning and four pitchers held the Raiders to one hit the rest of the way. PV tied the game when Garrett Cranmer scored from third on an infield error. The Raiders also lost to Winfield, 8-1.
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