Maplesville tunes up for playoffs with win over Southside
Published 9:57 am Saturday, April 12, 2014
Maplesville’s Brett Walker (right) slides safely into second base for a stolen base during Friday’s game.
By Brandon Sumrall | Special to the Advertiser
Maplesville’s baseball team picked up its 18th win of the season on Friday against Southside High School, 6-1.
Visiting Southside (1-9 overall, 0-6 area) loaded the bases in the top of the first inning and with two outs, MHS made an early pitching change to call Trevor Wallace to the mound.
Three strikes later, the Red Devils were out of the inning with no damage done by the Panthers.
Damian Mitchell started the bottom half of the first inning with a walk, and Brandon Abbott reached base on an in infield error to give the Red Devils (18-4, 6-1) two baserunners.
Colby Chambers knocked in Mitchell with an RBI single, and Trent Smitherman knocked in Abbott and Chambers with an infield single of his own.
Smitherman later scored on a passed ball to give the Red Devils a 4-0 lead after one inning of play.
Three straight walks to the Red Devils in the bottom half of the second inning loaded the bases with two outs, but an infield ground ball to the Panthers first baseman would bring the inning to a close.
The Panthers went down quietly once again in the top of the third inning, while the Red Devils added one more run on a Zach Bush single up the middle that scored Brett Walker, who reached on a single of his own.
Both teams went down in order through the fourth inning, and the Red Devils still led 5-0 after four innings of play.
Another three-up and three-down inning for the Panthers in the top of the fifth inning allowed the Red Devils to extend their lead in the home half of the inning.
Colby Chambers started the inning off with a double to left-center field and was later driven in by a sacrifice fly by Smitherman to deep center field to conclude scoring in the game.
Wallace pitched 6 2/3 innings for the Red Devils, allowing one hit and three walks while striking out 10.
Chambers went 2-for-3 with a double, RBI and two runs scored.
Maplesville will host Wadley on Friday in a best-of-three, first-round playoff series with games at 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Game 3 would be played Saturday if needed.
