PREP BASEBALL: PCA clinches Area title with win over St. James
PCA’S Jack Diefenderfer celebrates his sixth-inning home run in the Panthers’ Area-clinching win over St. James on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Friday’s doubleheader between Prattville Christian Academy and St. James had a playoff feel to it, which was certainly understandable with the 3A Area 5 championship on the line.
While the Panthers played that way on Friday, the Trojans faltered a little in the early innings, allowing three unearned runs that allowed PCA to win 6-3 and secure the Area 5 championship.
“The first inning showed our hand early,” St. James coach Keith Lucky said. “They had the full swing off the end of the bat that dribbled out there to the pitcher and he slips and falls, then tries to make a play on it. Then a bloop hit, a seeing-eye single, scored the first run. Every time we had any momentum or any positive things going for us early in that ballgame, we turned around and did something negative.
“You can’t do that against a quality baseball team.”
St. James (16-9) will travel to Area 8 champion Altamont for the first round of the Class 3A state playoffs next Friday, while Prattville Christian (27-2) will play host to Area 8 runner-up Childersburg.
“I really took MA seriously, they were playing good baseball,” PCA coach Tommy Goodson said. “After last week, beating them really took a lot of pressure off of us. Being 26-2 and there’s a chance you don’t make the playoffs? That took some pressure off of us, so I told the guys, ‘We’re in the playoffs, now do we want to host in the first round or go on the road in the first round?’
“Of course, we want to win the region. This is our third year winning it and that was one of our goals. Making the playoffs was one goal, winning the region was our second goal and now we’ve got to go past the third round. We’ve been there the last two years.”
The battle showcased two of the better pitchers in the area, with PCA’s Ethan Walls going the distance, allowing three runs and six hits while striking out eight and walking five and St. James’ Tabor Offord going the distance, allowing six runs, three earned, on seven hits while striking out 10 and walking two.
Offord didn’t give up an earned run until Jack Diefenderfer hit a solo home run in the sixth inning. Walls didn’t give up an earned run until Charlie Cutler singled in a run in the fifth. Chase Perry added a solo home run in the seventh and Mason Craig followed two batters later with an RBI double.
“Tabor pitched a heck of a ballgame and their kid pitched a heck of a ballgame,” Lucky said. “It just came down to mistakes. That home run was their first earned run and you can’t win doing that against a good team. And they are.”
The Panthers took advantage of Trojan mistakes early as Bryce Masters reached on an error and scored on Connor Williams’ single in the first and Tyson Houston and Cody Baker singled in the first and those runners scored on a wild pitch and an error. St. James had two runners on base in the first two innings but couldn’t find the timely hit.
“We didn’t have our best stuff pitching,” Goodson said. “We never got ahead (in the count) on some of them, so we struggled. He got up to 108 pitches. Their pitcher got better as the game wore on. He got ahead and was confusing our batters. We didn’t make adjustments like we should have, but we put the ball in play and they made a mistake or two there.”
Williams and Luke Lawson each had a pair of hits to lead PCA at the plate. Mason Craig had a pair of hits and an RBI to lead the Trojans.
The two teams played a second game on Friday, with PCA winning 3-2, but that game did not count in the area standings.
St. James remains home to play Holtville on Tuesday for Senior Night, while PCA returns home to close out the regular season against Maplesville.
Prattville Christian 3, St. James 2
Prattville Christian completed a three game sweep of the Trojans with a 3-2 victory on Friday in the second game of the doubleheader.
PCA finished the 3A Area 5 season undefeated at 6-0.
The Panthers scored all three of their runs in the second inning. Ethan Walls singled and stole second. Blake Bowman walked and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Jack Diefenderfer walked to load the bases. A Gavin Oates single plated Walls and a Cody Baker double plated the other two runners.
St. James added single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to close the gap. Dawson Knowles led off the fifth inning with a double and scored on a groundout by J.B. Braswell. Tabor Offord led off the sixth inning with a single. One out later, Charlie Cutler doubled and Offord scored on a throwing error returning the ball to the infield. However, Cutler was unable to score from third base.
Diefenderfer pitched six innings for the Panther win, striking out seven. Luke Lawson pitched the seventh inning for the save. Trojan Will Blackwell took the loss, pitching five strong innings except for the stretch in the second.
Each team will advance to the 3A playoffs next weekend. Prattville Christian will host the Area 8 runner up, while Saint James will travel to the Area 8 champion.