Photo: Russellville’s William Rogers (left) collides with Sardis’ first baseman Chase Williams in the third inning of Game 1 of the teams’ Class 5A first-round playoff series on Monday, Apr. 22. (Matt McKean/Florence Times-Daily)
Courtesy of Florence Tines-Daily
Russellville looked ready as ever for another postseason push on Monday (Apr. 22), sweeping Sardis 5-2 and 20-3 at Russellville
The Golden Tigers (17-16) host Southside in the second round of the playoffs starting Friday. Southside rallied from a six-run deficit to beat Corner in a decisive game three on Monday.
Senior pitcher Caden Parker threw all seven innings of the opener, shaking off an early 2-0 deficit to hold the Lions (10-13) scoreless over the final six innings. Parker struck out one and walked three but got Sardis to hit a ton of weak grounders.
Devin Buckhalter singled, doubled, scored twice and walked with the bases loaded in game one. Hunter Briles had two RBI and Gordon White and Will Rogers one each.
In game two, White pitched five solid innings for Russellville and Rowe Gallagher got the last six outs. Russellville only had eight hits in the latter game but walked 20 times and was hit by a pitch three times.
Jackson Lindsey and Casen Heaps had early RBI and then Rogers, batting ninth, hit a two-run single in the third when the game was still competitive. A poor throw allowed a third runner in for a 5-1 lead. Russellville scored two more in the fifth, four in the sixth and eight in the seventh.