County teams out in round one
J.R. Tidwell/FCT
Jacob Seal (10), Luke Harris (16), Jordan Gist (3) and Blake Hyde (24) get fired up on the pitcher’s mound before game one against the Hartselle Tigers Friday afternoon during the 2013 state playoffs.
RUSSELLVILLE, PHIL CAMPBELL, ATHENS — Round one of the 2013 AHSAA state baseball playoffs proved rough for the three teams from Franklin County that made the postseason.
In fact, none of the three teams from Franklin won a game, as each was defeated in the first two games of its respective series.
The Russellville Golden Tigers were defeated 8-1 and 8-5 by the No. 6 Hartselle Tigers, who finished the regular season with a 32-12 record in a tough Class 5A region.
The Golden Tigers won their area and finished the year with a 23-15 tally.
Senior Logan Ezzell led the team in games played (38, every game), at-bats (132), hits (54), singles (29), doubles (16), triples (7) and RBIs (41).
Senior Jordan Gist led in runs scored with 36. Ezzell had a .682 slugging percentage, a .409 batting average and a .454 on- base percentage.
Gist led the team in hit by pitch with 20, and Ezzell (2), Luke Harris (2) and Austin Kitterman (1) combined for Russellville’s five home runs this season.
As a team the Golden Tigers had 1,045 at-bats, 294 hits, 216 singles, 59 doubles, 14 triples, five homers, 182 RBIs, 245 runs, 77 hit by pitch, 71 runs on errors, 122 walks, 227 strikeouts.
The team combined for a .281 batting average, .392 on-base percentage, and .379 slugging percentage.
Harris led in innings pitched with 50.1. Jacob Seal led with 6 wins, and Tyler Childers had the lowest ERA at 2.73 with a minimum of 12 innings pitched.
Russellville combined for 254.1 innings pitched, 20 wins, 15 losses, 3 saves, 272 hits, 205 runs allowed, 141 earned runs, 170 walks, 183 strikeouts, 42 HBP and a team ERA of 3.88.
The Phil Campbell Bobcats fell to the Hatton Hornets 16-10 and 8-3.
The Bobcats finished the season with a 17-12 record and had the distinction of being ranked No. 8 in the final ASWA poll of the 2013 season as well as winning their area.
The Tharptown Wildcats were the only team in the 2013 playoffs from Franklin County that played in the postseason last year.
The Wildcats had the tremendous task of playing the No. 1 team in Class 1A in the first round of the postseason in Athens Bible School, a team with a regular-season record of 28-2.
Despite having a solid year and a second-place finish in the area behind Hackleburg, Tharptown was defeated 13-1 and 7-3 in the series.
This concluded yet another chapter in Franklin County high school varsity baseball.
