By Brandon Sumrall | Special to the Advertiser
Fresh off of an area championship just one week ago, the Chilton County Tigers varsity baseball team’s playoff run was brought to an abrupt end with two consecutive losses to the Baldwin County Tigers, 20-5 and 6-2, on April 21.

The visiting Tigers proved early on that there was no case of road lag, as they jumped out to an early lead in the first inning thanks to an RBI single by Chase Overstreet that put Baldwin County up 1-0.

With both teams going quietly through the bottom half of the first and second inning, action moved to the third with Baldwin County leading 1-0.

Errors were the theme of the inning, as four Chilton County errors resulted in three Baldwin County runs and put the home team Tigers in a four-run deficit.

Chilton would answer big in the bottom half of the third as Eiland Cleckler would get things started with a lead off single and after a sacrifice bunt by Trevor Thompson, Griffin Green would follow with another single to give the Tigers two on with one out. A single by Kendall Davis would score one run, while a bunt by Keaton Sullivan and a double by Hunter Henson would add two more. With the Tigers adding one more run on the inning, the game would move to the fourth tied at four.

After a scoreless fifth, the game took a big turn, as a pair of walks along with a pair of hit batsman accompanied four singles and a double. Baldwin County put 10 runs on the board in their half of the inning.

With a 10-run deficit the Tigers faced an early end to game one, but a pair of doubles by Green and Sullivan gave CCHS the one run they desperately needed to keep the game going.

Baldwin extinguished any hopes CCHS had of clawing their way back in the game, as the visiting Tigers piled on six more runs in the top the sixth and cruised their way to a 20-5 win in game one of the best of three series.

Four Chilton County pitchers combined for four walks, 12 hits and 16 earned runs. Davis led the Tigers at the plate in game one with a 2-for-3 performance that included a pair of singles and a RBI.

Game two started much the way game one did, as both teams had a hard time putting points on the board early.

CCHS threatened in the home half of the second, as a leadoff single by Thompson gave Chilton County one on with no outs.

However, Thompson was stranded at third after a pair of ground ball outs and a fly ball to left.

Two CCHS errors in the bottom half of the third allowed Baldwin County to put the first runs of the game on the board followed by the hometown Tigers going in order. The action moved to the fifth with Chilton County trailing 1-0.

Chilton County saw another scoring opportunity slip through their fingers in the top of the fifth, as a leadoff walk to Gage Atcheson and a two-out single by Green was stranded on a strikeout for the third out.

A two-run bomb deep over the right field wall got the bottom half of the fifth started for Baldwin County and a couple more Chilton County errors grew the deficit to six.

Another scoring opportunity came and went for Chilton County in the top of the sixth inning, as a leadoff single by Sullivan and a one-out single by Dustin Langston was followed by a pair of strikeouts that stranded the two Tiger base runners and knocked CCHS down to their final three outs.

Chilton County finally got on the board thanks to a Baldwin County error off a ground ball from Gabe Grey that scored Cleckler and Thompson.

However, a strikeout and a fly ball to right brought the game and the season to a close for CCHS.