Moody baseball clinches playoff spot

By Johnny Sanders

Sports Editor

MOODY – The Moody

Blue Devils took the momentum from back to back wins at Hoover last week and used it to put together two wins over the Ramsay Rams on Tuesday and Wednesday to punch their ticket to the 2023 Alabama State Playoffs.

It all got started on Tuesday as the Blue Devils got the 11-1 win over Ramsay. The Rams struck the first blow, getting the 1-0 lead after the opening inning. Moody would answer in the second and tie the game at 1 apiece before two scoreless innings.

In the fifth inning, the Moody bats would get really hot, scoring 3 runs followed by 4 in the sixth and 3 more in the seventh, all while Bryant Hardin pitched lights out and the Blue Devils allowed no more runs the rest of the game and sealed the 11-1 victory. Hardin allowed just 1 run on 1 hit in the complete game while striking out 13 Ramsay batters in the process. Payton Isbell and Chase Marshall led from the plate driving in 2 RBI each but it was a team effort as 6 others would get a single RBI in the winning effort.

Blue Devil coach Eamonn Kelly said, “Tough start, to be honest. Their pitcher threw really well. We had to kind of wait him out. It took us a few innings to get rolling. I can’t say enough about freshman Bryant Hardin. He pitched well giving up 1 hit in 7 innings. Their team made routine plays and kept it close. I’m glad we were able to pull it out in the end.”

Originally scheduled for Thursday, the second game of the series was moved to Wednesday night due to weather, but that seemed to have no affect on the Blue Devils as they got the playoff-clinching win over the Rams 13-3. Moody jumped out to a 3-1 lead after one inning and then put 2 runs on the board in both of the next two innings, building a 7-1 lead heading into the fourth. The fourth inning would be scoreless by both teams but the Moody bats were not finished. In the fifth, Ramsay attempted a comeback

– On Friday night, the red-hot Leeds Green Wave took a 6-game winning streak (11 of their last 14) to John Carroll Catholic High School and, if any team was going to look past an opponent, Leeds had that opportunity. But Coach Jake Wingo and his staff had the boys focused and they took care of business against the Cavaliers in an 8-1 thrashing.

Leeds went up 1-0 in the top of the first inning when A Bradford grounded out to third base, bringing in Ty Bedell for the first score of the game as the defense held John Carroll scoreless. The second inning would be much of the same as Leeds put up 2 runs on an Andrew Howard pop fly that got Will Landers across the plate and a Bedell walk with the bases loaded later in the inning. The Cavaliers did not score.

Heading into the third inning with a 3-0 lead, both teams would go scoreless for the next two innings. In the fifth, Leeds would tack on 2 more runs to make it 5-0. Bedell would score on a based ball and Conner Nelson would double to drive in Bradford.

John Carroll would win the sixth inning, getting their first run of the game, but that would be it for the home team. Leeds would get 3 more runs across the plate in the seventh inning to make it 8-1 and that would be the final.

Bedell would have 2 runs on 2 at-bats while Bradford would match his 2 runs on 3 at-bats. Dax Phillips started on the mound and allowed no hits, no runs and struck out

3 batters in 2 innings. Jarod Latta came in for the next two innings and allowed no hits nor runs and sat 4 batters. Nolan Moore got the fifth and