By Michael Lindsay
The Stone Memorial Panthers kept their postseason alive Saturday afternoon as they defeated cross-town rival Cumberland County in a District 7/AAA tournament elimination game in Baxter, 12-5.
Saturday’s win comes less than 24 hours after a narrow loss to Livingston Academy Friday night, 6-5.
“Last night we had a really tough loss, and we were kind of down last night,” said SMHS head coach Trent Stokes. “When I showed up this morning, the boys were ready to go and the energy was great. That’s how this team has been all year; very resilient.
“We were having good, tough at-bats and were aggressive on the base path,” Stokes added. “We had 9 stolen bases on the game. The kids did a great job executing game plans at the plate.”
Taylyn Hurd picked up the win for Stone Memorial as he pitched 3 2/3 innings and gave up 2 hits while striking out a pair of Jet batters.
Stone Memorial’s Colin Tiegs led the Panthers offensively as the shortstop went 2-4 with 2 doubles, 2 runs scored and an RBI.
Cumberland County’s Braylon Burnett led the Jets at the plate as he went 2-4 with a double and 3 RBIs.
Stone Memorial struck early as the Panthers scored a run in the bottom of the first three innings to lead 3-0 entering the fourth inning.
The Panthers found their groove in the bottom of the fourth as they scored 4 runs to take a commanding 7-0 lead. Third baseman Wade Wilson drove in two Panthers with a grounder to right followed by a Nick Osmun single to score Wilson and Braden Looper stealing home to give SMHS a 7-run advantage.
Cumberland County didn’t lay down as the Jets responded with a 4-run top of the fifth. Brandon McCaleb drew a bases-loaded walk before a Burnett double to left drove in 3 runs to make the score 7-4.
After a 1-2-3 bottom of the fifth, Cumberland County loaded the bases again with no outs in the top of the sixth inning. With the go-ahead run at the plate, Stone Memorial pitcher Titus Bisbee locked in and sat down 3 consecutive Jet batters to get out of the jam unscathed.
“We were never really worried right there,” Stokes said on Cumberland County’s 4th and 5th innings. “One big hit with bases loaded hurt us, but we came right back out and shut the door on them. A great job by our pitchers; we got a little wild and put some free runners on, and that’s always going to cause problems. We did great at pitching out of that. When you get in tournament time, you’re always working that strategy. You better be playing chess and not checkers.”
After working out of the bases-loaded jam, Stone Memorial came back to life offensively as the Panthers scored 5 runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 12-4 lead over Cumberland County. Back-to-back doubles from Tiegs and Looper drove in 2 runs along with Wade Wilson scoring on an errant throw. Kamryn Melton capped off the inning with a 2-RBI double to put the Panthers ahead 12-4 entering the seventh inning.
Cumberland County scratched 1 run across in the final frame as senior Cade Baisley finished his high school career with a grounder to score Jacob Hodge, making the final score 12-5 in favor of Stone Memorial.
The Panthers will be back in action on Monday as they face Macon County in the loser’s bracket at Upperman at 4 p.m. The winner of that game will face Livingston Academy immediately after with a berth in the district championship and region tournament on the line.
