PAGE 10 / WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014
THE PIEDMONT JOURNAL
Piedmont faces tough battles ahead RIP DONOVAN Journal Sports Correspondent
Never let it be said that Piedmont baseball coach James Blanchard schedules a bunch of cream puffs. This week, the Bulldogs have home contests with 6A Oxford, 4A Jacksonville and 4A Cleburne County as they prepare for a home-and-home series with area opponent Saks on March 20-21. “I think it helps tremendously, playing good teams like that, higher classifications” Blanchard said Tuesday morning, prior to Piedmont’s doubleheader with Oxford Tuesday evening. “You see good pitching every day.” Jacksonville comes to Piedmont Friday for another doubleheader starting at 4:30 p.m. Saturday’s meeting with Cleburne County will be a single varsity game at approximately 5 p.m., shortly after the 3 p.m. ‘B’ team game against Jacksonville concludes. Last Thursday’s game at Alexandria was rained out and Alexandria’s schedule was filled Friday and Saturday. The Bulldogs were able to make a last-minute schedule adjustment and pick up a home doubleheader Saturday with Randolph County, a Class 2A semifinalist last season. Piedmont took the first game against the Tigers 11-4 then won the nightcap 2-0. “It was big time,” Blanchard said of the opportunity to schedule a quality opponent and not have to go a week without playing. “That kind of gave us some confidence winning those two games. I could tell in
Doug Borden
Jaret Prater collects a hit against Randolph County. practice (Monday).” In the opener, Easton Kirk and Bayley Blanchard had first-inning RBI singles to score Caleb Adams and Payton Young, earning the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead. Jaret Prater
singled, stole second and scored on an error in the second. Two unearned runs in the top of the third made it 3-3 briefly but Taylor Hayes walked with two down in the bottom of the third, stole second and came home on
Peyton Whitten’s double. Piedmont stretched its lead to 8-3 with four runs in the fourth. Young, Kirk, and Hayes each had an RBI single. In the fifth, Kirk forced in a run with a bases-loaded walk and Blanchard’s infield single got another run home. Adams was 4-for-4 in his debut as Piedmont’s leadoff hitter. His sacrifice fly in the fifth scored Whitten with the final run for the Bulldogs. Adams also stole two bases and scored three times. Kirk, moving into the cleanup spot behind Young, had three singles and a walk in four plate appearances and drove in three runs. Blanchard, Whitten, Matt Strott and Tyler Lusk each had two hits. Lusk and Whitten doubled once. Blanchard started and picked up the win with five innings of work. He allowed two earned runs and five hits, struck out one and walked four. Kirk finished with two innings of scoreless ball on two hits. He fanned one. Hayes won a pitchers’ duel in the late game with a seven-inning complete game. He fanned 12 and walked two in the shutout. Randolph County managed just two hits. Piedmont got one run in the second and one in the fifth. Lusk’s ground ball to the right side scored Blanchard from third with the Bulldogs’ first run. Blanchard, Hayes and Whitten had consecutive one-out singles when Blanchard scored in the fifth. Blanchard had three singles for the game while Whitten and Kirk had two singles apiece.
PROGRAM Pitching looks to be strong point for Spring Garden
RIP DONOVAN Journal Sports Correspondent
After a series sweep over Gaylesville last week to open area play, Spring Garden (8-2) continues area competition this week. The Panther hosted Coosa Christian Tuesday and will play a doubleheader against the Conquerors Thursday in Gadsden. Spring Garden coach Tony Benefield planned to pitch senior Will Ivey Tuesday with classmate Grant Benefield to start the first game of Thursday’s twin bill. The 2014 edition of the Panthers has been a different kind of team than the elder Benefield’s first six teams at Spring Garden. Pitching depth had been a hallmark at Spring Garden but Andrew McLarty and Will Westbrook, penciled in as the No. 2 and No. 3 starters behind the younger Benefield, have yet to throw an inning.
“This may be the best hitting team that I’ve had,” the coach said. “In a couple of games we’ve only had six hits but we had balls hit well and had good approaches at the plate. … That mid-range pitching that we’re going to see most of the time, ... we hammer that stuff and that’s what we need to hammer because that’s what we’re going to see. Hopefully, that strong point will continue.” Gaylesville came to Spring Garden on March 4 and the Panthers won 7-0. Benefield fanned a career-high 16 batters and allowed just one hit in seven shutout innings. McLarty doubled and scored two runs. Dylan Kirk had two singles and scored once. Ivey and Austin Stordahl each added a single to the Spring Garden attack. Rain and then a rain-soaked field delayed the doubleheader at Gaylesville from Thursday until Saturday. Benefield started Saturday’s opener and recorded
PROGRAM
another shutout, this one 9-0. Over seven innings, he struck out nine and gave up two hits. Westbrook had Spring Garden’s only multi-hit game with two doubles and drove in two runs. McLarty doubled. Kirk, Ivey and Benefield each had a single. The elder Benefield said it was the first time he had been able to pitch the same pitcher twice in an area series in his time at Spring Garden. In the second game, a six-run outburst in the first inning started the Panthers on their way to a 19-9 win in five innings. Ivey tossed the first three innings and was the victor. He struck out three and allowed three earned runs. Ivey, Westbrook and Dawson Broome each had two hits. Westbrook’s included a double. Colton Lambert, Lucas Crawford and Benefield had a double apiece. McLarty and Riley Austin each contributed a single.
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