By Chris McCarthy/Editor
The cold weather and a brief snow flurry in Sardis City on Monday afternoon didn’t prevent the Lion bats from getting hot late against Crossville.
With the game tied at 3-3, Sardis (7-4, 1-0) scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to notch en route to a 7-3 in their Class 4A, Area 11 opener in high school baseball.
The Lions’ big inning began when Seth Smith reach base on an error. Consecutive one-out singles by Dex McKinney and Toby Pee loaded the bases for Jesse Hubbard who plated the eventual winning run with a fielder’s choice.
Kailon Robeson provided the inning’s big hit, lacing a two-out double to the center-rightfield gap for a four-run lead.
Jesse Hubbard sent the visiting Lions down in order in the top of the seventh to secure the win.
“Kailon’s been struggling a little bit lately, and I told him to keep his head up, and he really came through for us in that situation, said Sardis head coach Clay Wright. “It really changed the momentum of the game. Their pitcher (Josh Thacker) did a good job over the first couple of innings, but we were able to get a few hits and scratch a few runs across and then we had that huge (sixth) inning.”
As the Lions’ starting pitcher, Robeson allowed five hits and two earned runs while striking out eight and walking three. Thacker went the distance for Crossville, scattering 12 hits and six earned runs with six strikeouts and a pair of walks in six innings.
At the plate for Sardis, Toby Pee went 3-for-4 with two triples and a run scored.
Kyle Duckett went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, while Zack Childers went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
Thacker kept the hosts off the scoreboard over the first three innings, allowing only three baserunners and stranding Pee following his two-out triple in the third.
Meanwhile, the visitors took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Zane Philips’ sacrifice fly plated Brady Williams.
Robeson retired the side in order in the third, however, and in the top of the fourth escaped a one-out, runners-on-second-and-third situation with two straight strikeouts.
Sardis got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth on Ross Strickland’s two-run double, but Crossville went up 3-2 in the next inning with run-scoring singles from William Jones and Hunter Pointer.
Sardis tied the score in the bottom of the fifth when Duckett’s base hit drove in Childers, and the hosts finally got to Thacker in the sixth.
For Crossville, Jones went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
“Today was big for us, because we really had to get that first area win under our belt,” added Wright.
