BULLETIN AS WE GO TO PRESS:
Southern Alamance’s baseball team forced Game 3 in the Class 6-A East Region best-of-3 finals by winning 12-2 against visiting Southern Lee in Game 2 on Wednesday night.
The game was reduced to 4½ innings by the mercy rule after the Patriots used a seven-run second inning to build a 9-0 lead on the way to snapping Southern Lee’s 19-game winning streak. The teams will meet Friday night in Sanford.
By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
The postseason had been good to Southern Alamance’s baseball team – at least until this week anyway.
The Patriots won four consecutive games in the state playoffs and had a five-game overall winning streak until falling in Game 1 of the Class 6-A East Region finals Tuesday night.
Second-seeded Southern Lee defeated No. 12 seed Southern Alamance 7-3 in Sanford.
Game 2 was scheduled for Wednesday night at Southern Alamance. If the Patriots won, a third game in the best-of-3 series will be held Friday night at Southern Lee.
The Cavaliers scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning and Southern Alamance never caught up in Game 1, though it pulled within 6-3 in the top of the third. The Patriots were held to four hits.
Luke Waters drove in three runs and Ben Harrington pitched six innings for Southern Lee.
Alexander Central and South Caldwell are meeting in the West Region finals seeking a spot opposite Southern Alamance or Southern Lee in next week’s state finals.
Southern Alamance edged top-seeded Greenville Rose 3-2 in eight innings on Cooper Partin’s home run Friday night for a fourth-round upset.
Partin also struck out six batters in four shutout innings and Nathan McNeal pitched the other four innings in what was a combined four-hitter.
Anderson Fields had a run-scoring single for Southern Alamance, which overcame 11 strikeouts.
