The LBWCC Saints split with Wallace-Dothan Thursday afternoon at Crum Foshee Field, winning the first game 5-0 on an outstanding pitching performance by Kade Suther, but a seven-run sixth inning by Wallace left the Saints on the short end of 12-8 score in game two.

 

 

 

LBWCC took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning of game one for a good start.

 

 

 

Houston Davenport led off the inning with a single, and Michael Mims drew a walk to put the first two Saints of the inning on base.

 

 

 

Darius Baldwin gave the Saints the lead with a run-scoring single that brought Davenport around from second.

 

 

 

The Saints went up 3-0 when Trey Matherson singled home both Mims and Baldwin.

 

 

 

Michael Tedford put the Saints up 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single that brought Davenport around to score for the second time in the contest.

 

 

 

Matherson drove in the Saints final run of the game in the bottom of the seventh, and Suther coasted through the next few innings in the game-one win.

 

 

 

In game two, Wallace-Dothan raced out front in the top of the first inning with three runs on four hits to take an early 3-0 lead.

 

 

 

The Saints scratched back in the bottom of the first with an RBI single from Brandon Smith.

 

 

 

In the bottom of the second inning, the Saints continued to scrape back and got RBIs from Tedford and Charlie Spencer to tie the game up 3-3.

 

 

 

Wallace-Dothan took the lead back in the top of the third inning off a two-run double from Danny Sanchez.

 

 

 

LBWCC cut the lead down to one run with a RBI single from Spencer in the bottom of the fourth.

 

 

 

One inning later, the Saints tied the game 5-5 when Smith scored off of an error, and took the lead 6-5 when Matthew Harvey drove in Matherson with a fielder’s choice.

 

 

 

Wallace-Dothan tied the contest in the top of the sixth, and took a 9-6 lead when John Price crushed a three-run home run off Saints’ closer Josh Dewrell.  Sanchez put Wallace-Dothan up 10-6 with an RBI double, and Josiah Sullivan hit a two-run bomb to take a 12-6 lead.

 

 

 

“We went to our closer in the sixth,” Saints’ head coach Steve Helms said. “He (Dewrell) just didn’t have it today, but we haven’t lost faith in him and we will go right back to him on Saturday. That’s just baseball-some days you have it and some you don’t. It just wasn’t his day.”

 

 

 

The Saints battled in the bottom of the seventh with an RBI from Hunter Baggett, and the final run of the contest was driven in on a single from Mims.

 

 

 

Former Saints pitcher John Cunningham picked up the win on the mound for Wallace-Dothan.

 

 

 

With the split, the Saints overall record is now 23-10 and 12-4 in the ACCC South.

 

 

 

“We pitched well in the first game, and we played outstanding defense,” Helms said. “In the second game, we fought back twice. The best thing was that the kids didn’t quit. We had one poor inning today, but that is just baseball. We will move on from this, and get ready to play them again there on Saturday.”