Photo courtesy of Ted Melton
Spain Park Baseball
Spain Park's Hunter Howell in a game earlier this season.
The Spain Park High School baseball team traveled to Grissom for a Class 7A first round playoff series on Friday, but saw its season come to an end, as Grissom managed to sweep two games and advance to the second round.
Game 1: Grissom 9, Spain Park 7
The first game of the series was a back-and-forth contest. The Jags took an early 1-0 lead, as Will Battersby drew a bases loaded walk. A solo home run nullified that lead in the bottom half, but Spain Park struck again in the second, with runs scoring on a passed ball and a Jacob Rich sacrifice fly.
A three-run bomb gave Grissom the 4-3 lead in the bottom half of the second, but Peyton Sanderson tied the game once again at 4-4 with one of his two RBIs in the game.
Grissom re-took the lead in the bottom half of the fourth and would never trail again, taking a 9-5 lead into the seventh before the Jags made things interesting with a two-out rally. They scored a pair of runs on a fielder's choice and an error before the final out.
Game 2: Grissom 9, Spain Park 8
The second game was a high-scoring one as well, but only because Spain Park mounted a big charge at the end.
Once again, the Jags took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, on a Will Evans RBI single. But Grissom scored seven runs over the second and third innings and took a commanding lead that would hold up until the sixth inning.
Trailing 8-1 in bottom of the sixth, Evans and Sam Dozier drove in runs with singles before Kevin Hopkins blasted a three-run homer to pull the Jags within two.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Jags loaded the bases with a hit and two straight walks. William Mee coaxed a walk to make it three in a row and force a run home to make it 8-7, but back-to-back strikeouts ended the contest with Spain Park a run shy.
