Solid pitching highlights 3A series
By By Carver Rayburn / staff writer
April 24, 2003
A pitchers duel should be on tap tonight as the West Lauderdale Knights and the No. 15 -ranked Greene County Wildcats face off in class 3A second round action.
West Lauderdale (21-6) comes into the weekend series after sweeping Franklin County 6-0 and 6-1 in action this past weekend.
Greene County (26-4) took care of their opponent in two games as well.
The pivotal game one of the series will see the two squads send their ace pitchers to the mound in attempt to take a 1-0 series lead into game two in Leakesville.
Senior right-hander Jamie Fontan will get the start for the Knights. Fontan is 8-2 on the year and boasts an earned run average of 1.17 to go along with an average of 12 strikeouts per game.
Fontan pitched his fourth no-hitter of the year against Frankiln County this past weekend.
The senior ace's opponent will be the Wildcats' junior southpaw Taylor Kimble. The Leakesville leftie will come to Collinsville with a 9-1 record on the year and has recorded 100 strikeouts on the season.
Boatner, who recently won his 800th career game, believes that this series will be one of low scoring and will come down to plain old execution.
If Boatner's forecast of tonight's game is correct, it will come down to which team's hitters can get the job done.
West Lauderdale will look for offensive sparks from senior Trent Posey, junior Bo Davis and senior Richie McAllister.
Posey leads the Knights with a batting average of .410 and has six home runs on the year.
Davis is batting .350 with three home runs and the speedster has 10 stolen bases for the season.
McAllister has been the hottest hitter as of late for the Knights with a .295 average and five home runs.
Greene County has a few offensive weapons of its own that it will hope can get past Fontan's "come-from-behind" curve balls.
Senior left fielder Elliot Burke is batting .441 with 39 RBIs and has four home runs. Burke is also the Wildcats' career home run leader.
Lead-off man Antonio Anderson is batting .443 with 42 hits for the season. The South Alabama signee also 22 stolen bases so far this season.
Game two of the series will take place in Leakesville at Greene County High School on Friday at 7 p.m.
Trent Posey will get the call from Boatner and will take a 6-3 record into Wildcats' country. Posey boasts a 1.79 era and is averaging 10 strikeouts per game.
Greene County will most likely send senior right-hander Dustin Eubanks to the mound of clay. Eubanks is 7-1 and has struck out 64 batters this year.
