Parklane secures top seedSouthern Sports & Travel, By Darron Thomas
The Parklane Pioneers nailed down the #1 seed from the AAA South Division 1 last night with a come from behind 11-6 win at home over Oak Forest. The second ranked Pioneers will take on top ranked Jackson Academy next week as the AAA baseball playoffs get underway.
Parklane’s bats were as cool as the night air last night in McComb for the first three innings as the Pioneers managed just two hits and found themselves down 5-1 to an opportunistic Oak Forest squad.
Drew Misita’s infield single in the first inning scored Phillip Ingraffia for an early 1-0 Oak Forest lead. The Jackets added to their lead in the top of the third inning. Parker Morgan led off with a double to deep center field and advanced to third on a bunt single from James Peterson. Phillip Ingraffia brought Morgan home on another Oak Forest bunt single to push the lead to 2-0. Incredibly the Jackets produced their third consecutive bunt single to load the bases, this time from Drew Misita. Senior James Wilkenson came through with a right field single to score Peterson and courtesy runner Keaton Carter to push the advantage to 4-0 and a two out single from Austin Lee scored Drew Misita to give the Jackets a 5-0 lead.
Parklane managed to get on the board in their half of the third inning as they capitalized on an Oak Forest error and after trading runs with the Jackets in the fourth inning left Parklane on the low end of a 6-2 score the Pioneer bats starting heating up.
With Parklane starting pitcher Shelby Johnson settling down on the mound in the fifth inning by striking out three consecutive Oak Forest batters after allowing a lead off single by Jordan Wilkenson, the Pioneers exploded in their half of the fifth inning. Wes Gill led off with a standup double off reliever Phillip Ingraffia and two batters later Chance Schmidt brought Gill home with a single to left field. Zach Smith’s infield hit loaded the bases with no outs and Brandon Austin drew a walk to score courtesy runner Bryce Bean to trim the deficit to 6-4
. Three consecutive singles from Josh Armstreet, Alex Price and Nathan Taylor brought home four more runs to put Parklane on top 8-6 but the Pioneers weren’t done. After loading the bases once again the Pioneers got a standup double from Austin Terrell to score Alex Price, Nathan Taylor and Wes Gill to extend the lead to 11-6. Parklane sent 13 batters to the plate in an inning that produced seven hits and nine runs.
Shelby Johnson (Photo right) made quick work in the sixth inning as he faced just three Oak Forest batters and Chance Schmidt closed out the seventh inning for the save to preserve an 11-6 Parklane win. Johnson pitched six innings, allowed 11 hits, and had 9 strikeou
ts to earn the win.
Austin Terrell had a double and single for Parklane and Alex Price nailed two singles.
Phillip Ingraffia led Oak Forest with three singles and James Peterson had a double and single on the night.
With the win Parklane improves to 17-7 and 10-3 in the division while Oak Forest falls to 20-8 and 7-6.
Both teams will close out the regular season with a doubleheader in Amite on Thursday..
Post game comments:
Parklane head coach Michael Clements
“Our guys have faced tremendous adversity and there have been so many times when we’ve come back when we were down like we were tonight. We put up nine runs in the fifth inning after getting down in the early innings. That showed what kind of character our guys had to be able to put up nine runs.”
“Our guys know that hitting is contagious and we’ve done that all year. We’ve been down at times and we would get a leadoff hitter on base with a walk or hit and our guys know that things like that can turn into a snowball effect”.
“Although we’ve nailed down the #1 seed we’re not going to change anything for our last two regular season games with Oak Forest. We won’t rest anybody; we’ll play like we’ve played all season.”
Parklane’s bats were as cool as the night air last night in McComb for the first three innings as the Pioneers managed just two hits and found themselves down 5-1 to an opportunistic Oak Forest squad.
Drew Misita’s infield single in the first inning scored Phillip Ingraffia for an early 1-0 Oak Forest lead. The Jackets added to their lead in the top of the third inning. Parker Morgan led off with a double to deep center field and advanced to third on a bunt single from James Peterson. Phillip Ingraffia brought Morgan home on another Oak Forest bunt single to push the lead to 2-0. Incredibly the Jackets produced their third consecutive bunt single to load the bases, this time from Drew Misita. Senior James Wilkenson came through with a right field single to score Peterson and courtesy runner Keaton Carter to push the advantage to 4-0 and a two out single from Austin Lee scored Drew Misita to give the Jackets a 5-0 lead.Parklane managed to get on the board in their half of the third inning as they capitalized on an Oak Forest error and after trading runs with the Jackets in the fourth inning left Parklane on the low end of a 6-2 score the Pioneer bats starting heating up.
With Parklane starting pitcher Shelby Johnson settling down on the mound in the fifth inning by striking out three consecutive Oak Forest batters after allowing a lead off single by Jordan Wilkenson, the Pioneers exploded in their half of the fifth inning. Wes Gill led off with a standup double off reliever Phillip Ingraffia and two batters later Chance Schmidt brought Gill home with a single to left field. Zach Smith’s infield hit loaded the bases with no outs and Brandon Austin drew a walk to score courtesy runner Bryce Bean to trim the deficit to 6-4
. Three consecutive singles from Josh Armstreet, Alex Price and Nathan Taylor brought home four more runs to put Parklane on top 8-6 but the Pioneers weren’t done. After loading the bases once again the Pioneers got a standup double from Austin Terrell to score Alex Price, Nathan Taylor and Wes Gill to extend the lead to 11-6. Parklane sent 13 batters to the plate in an inning that produced seven hits and nine runs.Shelby Johnson (Photo right) made quick work in the sixth inning as he faced just three Oak Forest batters and Chance Schmidt closed out the seventh inning for the save to preserve an 11-6 Parklane win. Johnson pitched six innings, allowed 11 hits, and had 9 strikeou
ts to earn the win.Austin Terrell had a double and single for Parklane and Alex Price nailed two singles.
Phillip Ingraffia led Oak Forest with three singles and James Peterson had a double and single on the night.
With the win Parklane improves to 17-7 and 10-3 in the division while Oak Forest falls to 20-8 and 7-6.
Both teams will close out the regular season with a doubleheader in Amite on Thursday..
Post game comments:
Parklane head coach Michael Clements
“Our guys have faced tremendous adversity and there have been so many times when we’ve come back when we were down like we were tonight. We put up nine runs in the fifth inning after getting down in the early innings. That showed what kind of character our guys had to be able to put up nine runs.”
“Our guys know that hitting is contagious and we’ve done that all year. We’ve been down at times and we would get a leadoff hitter on base with a walk or hit and our guys know that things like that can turn into a snowball effect”.
“Although we’ve nailed down the #1 seed we’re not going to change anything for our last two regular season games with Oak Forest. We won’t rest anybody; we’ll play like we’ve played all season.”
