Dragons Run Rule Ridgeland To Win Series

On Friday afternoon, the PHS Dragons varsity baseball team hosted the Ridgeland Panthers for the third and final game of their region series. On Thursday, the Dragons evened up the series at one game a piece, by getting an 8-5 win at Ridgeland, and looked to win the series & take 2nd place all to themselves with a victory.

 

Senior Will Lawrence got the call to start game 3 & pitched beautifully. The top of the 1st saw Lawrence strike out two Panthers to send the Dragons up to the plate. Pickens, got off to a fast start in the bottom of the frame, scoring 6 runs on just 3 hits. The Dragons, drew 5 walks, one batter got hit, & got 2 RBI from Tyler Vreeland, 1 RBI from Hunter White, & 1 RBI from Brady Moore in the bottom half of the inning. Going to the 2nd, the Dragons led Ridgeland, 6-0.

 

Lawrence, continued his good work from the first inning, collecting his 3rd strikeout of the game. The Dragons got some two out magic in the bottom of the 2nd, as Jacob Kirchoff got hit by a pitch bringing in Austin Chester, then Moore knocked in Chad Pacas, making it 8-0 Pickens, going to the 3rd.

 

Ridgeland, scored two runs in the top of the 3rd as Lawrence had the rare 4 strikeout inning (batter made it to 1st after strike 3 got passed the catcher). The Dragons, got an RBI single from Pacas, to make it 9-2 Pickens, going to the 4th.

 

Lawrence, struck out the side in the top of the 4th, bringing his total up to 10 for the game. The Dragons added to their lead in the bottom of the inning as Vreeland drove in Moore to make it 10-2, going to the 5th.

 

Ridgeland, was able to plate a run in the top of the 5th, but that would be all as Lawrence collected his 11th strikeout to close out the top half of the frame. In the bottom of the 5th, Chester led off reaching on an error, Pacas & White both singled, Kirchoff brought in Chester with a sacrifice fly, then Caswell Smith stepped up & hit a three run home run to end the ball game & give the Dragons a 14-3 win.

 

Pickens, is now 14-7 overall & 9-3 in 6-AAAA. They are in 2nd place in the region & 1 game back of Northwest Whitfield in the loss column. The Dragons, will take on Dalton this week in non-region action. The first game, will be at Dalton on Thursday & the 2nd game will be at Dragons Field on Friday. Both games are set to start at 5:30.

 

Stats:

Brady Moore: 1-3 with a single, 2 walks, 2 runs scored, & 1 RBI

Caswell Smith: 1-2 with a 3-run home run, 2 walks, 2 runs scored, & 4 RBI

Tyler Vreeland: 1-3 with a single & 3 RBI

Will Lawrence: 1-3 with a single & 1 walk & 5 IP, 11 K on 101 pitches

Austin Chester: 2-4 with 2 singles & 3 runs scored

Chad Pacas: 3-3 with 3 singles, 1 hit by pitch, 3 runs scored, & 1 RBI

Hunter White: 3-3 with 3 singles, 1 walk, 2 runs scored, & 1 RBI

Jacob Kirchoff: 1 walk, 1 hit by pitch, & 2 RBI