Red Bay advances in state playoffs

The Red Bay Tigers swept the Sumiton Christian Eagles 13-3 and 2-1 to punch their ticket to the quarterfinals of the Class 2A baseball state playoffs.

The Tigers now turn their attention to North Sand Mountain. Red Bay will host the Bison on Tuesday at 4:30 and 7 p.m.

In game one against Sumiton, Davo Colburn racked up five hits in five plate appearances to lead Red Bay to the easy 13-3 win. Colburn singled in the second, fourth, sixth and seventh innings.

The Eagles got on the board first on a solo home run in the top of the first inning. Red Bay responded in the bottom half of the inning with an RBI single by Joshua Thorne to give Red Bay a 2-1 lead and it was all Tigers from there.

Carson McGee earned the win for Red Bay giving up six hits and walking three.

Red Bay churned out 17 hits, including the five from Colburn, who also had three RBIs. Joshua Thorne and Ayden also drove in three runs for the Tigers. Riley Carpenter, Lewey, and Jeremiah Thorne each collected multiple hits for Red Bay.

Game two was a much tighter contest, going down to the wire. Red Bay got the win in walkoff fashion. With the game tied at one in extra innings, Colburn hit a ground ball to the pitcher, who committed an error allowing Pruitt to score the winning run.

It was a classic pitching duel with Red Bay’s Jeremiah Thorn striking out seven. Thorne allowed just two hits and walked just one and was backed up by stellar defense in the field.

Sumiton’s pitchers mowed down 14 Tigers.

The game was scoreless through five innings of play. Sumiton Christian took a 1-0 lead in the top of the sixth.

Red Bay scored its first run on a double to right field by Riley Carpenter to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh and send the game into extra innings.

The Tigers improved their record to 23-6 on the year.