RHS baseball boys sweep to state
The Russellville Golden Tigers are headed to state to defend the title and repeat as state champs.
By Brannon King
For the FCT
The Russellville baseball team had to wait an extra day to start their round-two playoff series against Lawrence County at home, but it didn’t take long for them to show they were ready to advance to round three by sweeping the Red Devils by scores of 10-0 and 7-1.
Rain on Friday forced the best-of-three series to begin on Saturday, and the Golden Tigers (42-6) jumped out to a quick, 4-0 lead in game one. Judd Ward got things going with a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning. Austin Bohannon added an RBI single and later, in the opening frame, Colin Garrison drew a bases-loaded walk to make the score 4-0, and the rout was on.
Cody Greenhill pitched the complete game, six inning, shutout for the win. The hard-throwing right-hander struck out seven batters, walked one and allowed only two hits. The RHS defense was solid behind him as well and committed no errors.
Landon Oliver drove in runs five and six with a fourth inning single. Later, the Lawrence County defense misplayed a ball Oliver hit in the fifth to make the score 7-0. Garrison was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the sixth to pick up an RBI the hard way before Reed Smith, who had two doubles in game one, picked up an RBI single. Another Red Devil miscue led to the final run when Ward put the ball in play.
It was more of the same in game two. The Golden Tigers had seven runs on seven hits and held Lawrence County to only two hits. RHS again played a clean game with no errors in the field, while the Red Devils had four.
Bohannon pitched six innings for RHS. He struck out 12, allowed only two hits, gave up one run and walked two for the win. The solid senior lefty worked the first five innings, waited out a 30-minute lightning/rain delay and returned to the mound to pitch the sixth inning. Chad Wray came on to throw the final inning to finish off the victory, allowing only a walk, and he struck out a batter.
The Golden Tigers scored two runs in the first inning to grab an early advantage. Austin Kitterman had an RBI double before Skylar Holland drove in a run on a fielder’s choice. The duo struck again in the third when they both picked up sacrifice flies to make the score 4-0.
RHS scored two on a wild play in the sixth inning when two runners scored on a pitch that got away from the Lawrence County catcher. Greenhill finished off the scoring with a nice, RBI bunt single in the seventh.
Russellville head Coach Chris Heaps used a lesson in history to keep his team focused going into the matchup against the opponent that the Golden Tigers had already defeated three times in the regular season. “The British generals overlooked George Washington and the colonial militia too,” Heaps said. “That’s kinda the motto we had this week – you can’t underestimate your opponent, ever.”
Next up for RHS will be another home series, this time against the Alexandria Valley Cubs. The two teams met last year in the semi-finals of the playoffs. Games one and two are scheduled for May 6 with game three coming May 7 if necessary.
