TRM baseball sweeps Hillcrest to clinch spot in playoffs
The No. 7-ranked T.R. Miller Tigers baseball team clinched a spot in the class 3A state playoffs Friday as they easily swept the Hillcrest Jaguars for their seventh and eighth straight wins of the season.
In game one, TRM’s Tripp Floyd pitched a one-hitter to lead the Tigers to an 11-0 win over the Jaguars in five innings. In game two, JoJo Booker pitched a no-hitter in TRM’s 10-0 win.
In the win, Floyd and Booker faced 34 Jaguar batters and combined to strike out 25.
Floyd had 13 strikeouts in game one and Booker had 12 in game two. Floyd struck out the first seven Hillcrest batters of the game for the Tigers.
The wins moved TRM to 10-1 overall this season and to 2-0 in area play. Hillcrest forfeited to TRM Tuesday after not having enough players.
TRM will play at Opp Thursday at 4:30 p.m. and will host Opp Friday at 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. If TRM defeats the Bobcats twice, they will be area champions and will host a first round playoff game.
Game one: TRM 11, Hillcrest 0 (5 innings)
TRM’s Tripp Floyd struck out 13 and allowed one hit while TRM scored nine runs in the third inning behind a grand slam by Hunter Brittain to defeat Hillcrest 11-0 in game one Friday.
Floyd faced 17 batters and struck out 13 while allowing one hit and hitting one batter in the win.
At the plate for TRM Jones Manning had a single and Brittain had a double and a grand slam and finished with four RBIs.
Chris Jones added two singles and two RBIs while Booker had two singles and one RBI. Terry Samuel finished with a single and Tim McDonald had two singles and two RBIs. Jordan Williams added a single and one RBI.
TRM led Hillcrest 2-0 after one inning and added nine in the third inning to get the win by 11.
Game two: TRM 10, Hillcrest 0 (5 innings)
In game two, Booker pitched a no-hitter for the Tigers to propel TRM to a 10-0 win over the Jaguars in five innings.
Booker went all five innings and faced 17 batters and struck out 12, walked one and hit one.
The Tigers of TRM pounded out 10 hits in the win with Stokes Jennings adding a single and a double and two RBIs.
Drew Williamson and Brooks Brown both had a double each with Brown having one RBI.
Russell Smith had two singles and Chris Jones had a single and two RBIs.
Booker finished with a single and two RBIs while Floyd had a double and one RBI.
Caleb Winton finished with a single and one RBI in the win.
TRM led 6-0 after one inning, 7-0 after two, 8-0 after three and added two runs in the bottom of the fifth to get the 10-run mercy rule win.