By Brandon Sumrall | Special to the Advertiser

After winning as the road team—although close to home—at Verbena in Round 1 and Billingsley in Round 2, the Maplesville Red Devils returned to the friendly confines of home for Round 3 of the Class 1A state playoffs to face the Brantley Bulldogs.

Jemison, meanwhile, was on the road for a third consecutive week, traveling to UMS-Wright in Mobile.

The Panthers fell in Game 1 of their best-of-three series, 5-1, and in Game 2, 12-0, ending their season.

Maplesville was eliminated from the playoffs with two losses to Brantley.

Despite a five-run lead after two innings of play on Friday in Game 1, the Red Devils couldn’t quite keep pace with the Bulldogs as the visitors slugged the Devils with a 13-8 loss of Game 1 of the best-of-three series.

With Colby Chambers on the mound, the Maplesville defense made short work of the Bulldogs in the top of the first inning, retiring the side in order.

Chambers then added a little insurance for himself with a run-scoring sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Zach Bush, who reached earlier on a single.

Trevor Wallace later reached on a double and scored on an infield error by the Bulldogs, giving Maplesville an early 2-0 lead.

Chambers again made short work of the Bulldogs in the second, facing just four Bulldogs batters.

The Devils added four more runs in the bottom half of the second, with Alex Smith and Bush reaching base on walks. Wallace then reached after being struck by a pitch, preceding a base-clearing triple by Brent Walker, giving the Devils a 5-0 lead.

Chambers lost the element of surprise against the Bulldogs in the top of the third, as the visitors would settle in and score seven runs. Brantley added one more in the top of the fourth, jumping ahead of the Devils 8-5 after 3 1/2 innings of play.

The Devils answered back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth with Walker reaching on a single and Chambers on a double to left, with both runners to be driven in on a Brandon Abbott single up the middle, drawing the Devils to within one run of the lead.

MHS plated the one run they needed to tie the game in the bottom of the fifth.

Damian Mitchell singled to center field and was driven in on a Smith single to right, tying the game at 8-all heading to the seventh inning of play.

With two on and no outs, Brantley’s Selleven Burnett sent a shot over the left field wall, scoring three for the Bulldogs who would go on to score two more in the top of the seventh inning.

Ashley Haws faced just four Devil batters in the bottom of the seventh, closing out a 13-8 victory for the visiting Bulldogs.

Chambers got the start on the mound for the Red Devils, pitching 6 1/3 innings while giving up 11 earned runs with 10 hits and four strikeouts.

Walker lead the way for the Red Devils at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a single, triple and three RBI.

In the second game, Maplesville fell 14-6.

The Devils walked 15 batters and hit four more with pitches.

“No one can win doing that,” coach Brandon Shanks said.

Trent Smitherman went 2-for-3 at the plate for MHS with a three-run triple.

Brandon Abbott went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI, Larry Leggett went 1-for-2 with an RBI and Colby Chambers went 1-for-2 with a double.