Meigs Ends Hixson Baseball Season, 7-2

Tigers Take Charge In Region Semifinal With Five Runs Early

  • Monday, May 14, 2018
  • John Hunt

The Hixson Wildcats played pretty good baseball toward the end of the season and won the District 6-AA tournament with an impressive win over Signal Mountain.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for the Wildcats at beautiful John Plumlee Stadium Monday evening before a spirited crowd as the Meigs County Tigers ended Hixson’s season with the 7-2 victory.

The Tigers jumped on Hixson starter Alex Rollins early, scoring two runs in the first inning and three more in the second before Jack Julian came on in relief.

Those five runs were more than enough for Meigs’ junior Brantley Baker, who improved to 10-1 with his complete-game six-hitter.

“I struggled a little bit at the start as I didn’t have my best curve and my knuckleball wasn’t very good, but I just wanted to throw strikes and let my defense take care of the rest,” the 16-year-old righty explained after his team had improved to 23-7 with the big win.

“I think I was able to settle down after the start and it was nice for my team to score all of those runs early.  That definitely took the pressure off,” he added.

Aaron Johnson led off the game with a single to right before Baker walked.  Hunter Burke dropped down a perfect sacrifice bunt to get the runners over before Caleb Hyde struck out for the second out.  Alexander Herd hit ripped a two-run single down the line in right and the Tigers were on their way.

Will Meadows singled to lead off the Meigs second and scored on a triple by Gavin Lawson.  Johnson and Burke added run-scoring singles before a single by Hyde ended the evening for Rollins.

Julian did his job of keeping the Tigers off the board for the next few innings, but Hixson was simply unable to generate any offense off Baker.

Wallace walked to lead off the Hixson third before Rollins singled.  Both advanced a base on a passed ball before Wallace scored the first run for the Wildcats on a wild pitch.

Julian posted goose eggs in the third, fourth and fifth innings, but Meigs was able to add a pair of insurance runs in the sixth.

Lawson reached on a Hixson error before Johnson dropped a perfect bunt for his fourth straight hit.  Baker then helped his cause with an RBI-double and later scored the final run for the Tigers on a sacrifice fly by Herd.

Hixson was able to tally one more run in the bottom of the sixth.

Matthew Songer singled to right and went to third when that hit was misplayed for an error.  Trevor Moore’s single allowed Songer to score, but Baker was able to retire the final four hitters he faced as Hixson was unable to generate any additional offense.

Needless to say, Meigs County coach Tyler Roberts liked what he saw from his team.

“Offensively, we hit the ball well from start to finish and we also had a little luck along the way, but I’ll take that every time,” he said afterward.

“We wanted to put the pressure on Hixson right from the start.  We jumped out with those five runs that were great and that basically set the tone for the rest of the game.

“This is a great win for our program and we all know that Hixson has a fine team.  We just happened to get the best of them today,” Roberts concluded.

Hixson’s season ended with a record of 21-15.

Coach Colton Green was certainly disappointed, but he feels good about the future as the Wildcats only have two seniors on this year’s team.

“Sometimes the ball just doesn’t roll our way, but either way, it was a tough loss for us,” he began while walking across the infield toward second base.

“You never know what will happen in a situation like this, but it was just one of those nights.  They got those five runs early, but it still wasn’t out of reach.  We had guys on base, but just couldn’t get them in.  We were good enough to get here and I’m sure we exceeded any expectations, but today just wasn’t our day,” he concluded.

Baker was the winner after allowing two runs on six hits.  He also had four strikeouts while walking one and hitting one.

Rollins was the loser after allowing five runs on seven hits in his shortest outing of the season.  He had two strikeouts and one walk.

Johnson had four hits to lead the Meigs County parade as every starter except one had at least one hit.  Hyde and Lawson both had two while Herd had three runs batted in.

Rollins and Moore both had two hits for Hixson.  Wallace and Songer both had one hit apiece.

MEIGS CO.  230 002 0 – 7 13 1

HIXSON  001 001 0 – 2 6 2

Baker and Moon; Rollins, Julian (2) and Julian, Wallace (2).

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

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