Phil Campbell wins critical area series
By Bart Moss for the FCT
Phil Campbell is a series away from winning their area outright and hosting the first round of the playoffs in baseball. The Bobcats took two out of three games from the Lamar County Bulldogs last week. The Bobcats play Sulligent this week to close out area play.
Game One: Phil Campbell 7, Lamar County 1
The Phil Campbell Bobcats got a critical area series off to a good start, defeating the Lamar County Bulldogs 7-1. The Bobcats got their seven runs on six hits and took advantage of three Lamar County fielding errors.
Phil Campbell scored first in the top of the first inning when Peyton Thomas scored on a fielding error. The Bobcats got two more runs in the top of the second inning. Ridge Raper scored on a single by Gage Roberson, and Hayden Copeland scored on a fielding error by the Bulldogs, to make the score 3-0.
Lamar County picked up their lone run in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Phil Campbell extended the lead to 5-1 in the top of the sixth inning on a two-run homerun by Thomas scoring Copeland. The Bobcats scored their final two runs in the seventh inning, when Nick Swinney scored on a double by Raper and Cole Motes scored on a passed ball.
Thomas led the Bobcats, going 2-for-3 with two RBIs and scoring two runs. He also pitched a complete game, allowing only three hits and one earned run and fanned ten batters.
Game Two: Lamar County 7, Phil Campbell 1
The Bobcat bats went silent in game two of their series with the Lamar County Bulldogs. Phil Campbell managed only four hits in the game, but seven errors in the field is what really hurt the Bobcats.
Phil Campbell got their lone run in the bottom of the first inning when Peyton Thomas scored on a wild pitch.
Lamar County scored two more in the fourth and one in the seventh to get the win and force a tie breaking game three in the series.
Game Three: Phil Campbell 14, Lamar County 4
The Phil Campbell Bobcats exploded for ten runs in the fourth inning to blow away the Lamar County Bulldogs 14-4 and win the critical area series.
Lamar County took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Bobcats responded in the bottom of the second inning, taking a 3-1 lead over the Bulldogs. Swinney scored on a bases-loaded walk, while Raper and Mike Wrona scored on fielder’s choice.
Lamar County tied the game 3-3 in the top of the third inning but the Bobcats reclaimed the lead, 4-3, in the bottom half of the inning on a Joe Hardy single scoring Swinney.
Lamar County responded again by tying the game in the top of the fourth before Phil Campbell blew the game wide open with a 10-run bottom half of the inning. The Bobcats scoring started with a Roberson single scoring Copeland. Peyton Thomas scored next on a fielding error by Lamar County. Cole Motes scored on a Swinney RBI single to give the Bobcats a 7-4 lead.
Phil Campbell was not through. Swinney scored on a line drive double by Hardy, who later scored on a fielder’s choice. Raper and Blake McAfee scored on a Nick Taylor double to make the score 11-4. Taylor later scored on single by Copeland, who scored on a sacrifice fly two batters later.
The Bobcats’ final run of the inning, and game, came on an RBI single by Brodie Nix scoring Thomas.
Copeland got the win, going five innings allowing eight hits and three earned runs and striking out five.
The Bobcats also picked up a 10-6 win over Hamilton later in the week, taking advantage of five errors to defeat the Aggies Saturday.
Nate Owens got the win for the Bobcats. He pitched four innings, giving seven hits and four earned runs and striking out five.
