By By Adam Robinson – Sports Editor
In their only game against the Escambia County Blue Devil since opening the Escambia County tournament and their season against them for that matter, the T.R. Miller Tiger baseball team ended their season with a 4-3 win over the Blue Devils in eight innings Monday night at home.
The Tigers opened their season with a 14-3 loss to the Blue Devils back on February 29, at W.S. Neal.
The win gave the Tigers a win to end their season as they closed out their 2008 campaign with a 9-13 record.
James Hamric went the distance on the mound for the Tigers and earned the win. Hamric went eight innings and allowed three runs (two earned) on three hits, walked one and struck out seven in the one-run win.
Corey Williams was 2-for-5 with one RBI and that one RBI proved to be the biggest one of the night.
With the game tied at 3-3 after the end of seven innings, the game was forced into extra innings.
Hamric led off the top of the eighth inning with a walk. Seth Holland and Will Waters singled to load the bases with no outs.
That would bring up Williams with the bases loaded and no outs . He drove the ball up the middle of the infield for the game winning run as the Tigers took the win 4-3.
Escambia County struck first in the game with a lead off double. A Blue Devil single scored the first run of the game to give Escambia County a 1-0 lead after a half inning of play.
The lead was short-lived for the Blue Devils as the Tigers scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning to grab a 2-1 lead.
Seth Holland led the inning off with a walk and then advanced to second on a Will Waters single to put runners at first and second with no outs.
A Corey Williams' single loaded the bases for the Tigers as Derek Busby reached on a Blue Devil error to score Holland.
John Mathieu would then reached on a walk and score Waters for a 2-1 lead.
After Escambia County tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the fourth inning, the Tigers added a run in the bottom of the fifth inning when Mathieu launched a ball off the center field fence to score Christopher Griffin who had reach on a hit-by-pitch to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead.
The Blue Devils tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the sixth inning. Neither team scored and the game was forced into extra innings.
After a scoreless top of the eighth inning for the Blue Devils, the Tigers loaded the bases in their half of the inning. Williams singled in the game-winning run for the Tigers to give them the 4-3 win to end the game and their season.
Holland was 1-for-3 with one run scored. Waters was 2-for-5 with a run scored. Williams was 2-for-5 with the game winning RBI, and Mathieu was 2-for-3 with two RBIs in the win.
TRM 12. Hillcrest 1
In a game last week, the Tigers claimed a 12-1 win over the Hillcrest Jaguars in an area game.
The Tigers took a 5-0 lead into the bottom of the third inning before the Jaguars got on the board with a run to cut the lead to 5-1.
The Tigers added one run each in the top of the fourth and fifth innings to take a 7-1 lead and then added five in the top of the sixth to take a 12-1 lead and hold on for the 11-run lead in six innings of play.
John Mathieu led the Tigers at the plate offensively going 2-for-2 with three runs and three RBIs and a triple and earned the win on the mound for the Tigers.
On the mound for the Tigers, Mathieu went six innings to get the win and allowed one run (none earned) on two hits and struck out seven and walked two.
Blake Crosby was 2-for-3 on the day with a run scored for the Tigers. Corey Williams was 1-for-2 with two RBIs and two runs. Seth Holland, Chris Griffin and Will Waters were 1-for-3 each with two runs scored. Sam Sharpe was 1-for-2 in the win.
In the top of the first, Williams led the inning off with a Jaguar error. Waters walked and Mathieu was hit by pitch. The Tigers would score two runs in the inning to take an early 2-0 lead.
After a 3-0 lead after two innings of play, Waters led the inning off with a double as Crosby singled in a run for the Tigers and the Tigers claimed a 5-0 lead.
In the top of the sixth, Holland led the inning off with a single. Williams had a single and a RBI for the Tigers. Cody Swain added a single and Mathieu tripled in three runs for a five run inning. The Tigers took the win by a score of 12-1.