Barring additional weather delays, the tournament will finish as scheduled with two games each day Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Spring Garden’s final two contests will be Friday at 4 p.m. against Gaylesville and Saturday at noon against Cherokee County. Spring Garden coach Tony Benefield said Tuesday morning that another delay would probably mean four tournament games would be played on Saturday.
Monday, in Spring Garden’s first tournament game, the Panthers spotted Sand Rock a three-run lead in the first inning and rebounded to win 11-3. Junior Andrew Maddox tossed a four-hit complete game to lead Spring Garden past the Wildcats. Maddox gave up three hits and three runs in the first then allowed only one additional hit. He recorded eight strikeouts and did not issue a walk.
Spring Garden got two runs back in the top of the second. Walks to Tyler Smart and Ryan Messer and a single by Maddox loaded the bases. Smart scored when Trey Littlefield hit into a fielder’s choice for an RBI and Messer came home on an error. Messer’s RBI single scored Cory Anderson with the tying run in the third.
Will Penton scored the go-ahead run in the fourth. Penton singled then reached home on a two-out base hit by Jake Scott.
At Jacksonville Saturday, Weaver rallied for two unearned runs in the top of the seventh inning and defeated Spring Garden 10-9 in the consolation game of the Tri-County tournament. The Panthers pounded out 15 hits and led 9-8 after six innings. Five of Weaver’s 10 runs were unearned.
“We hit the ball good but we had five errors in the game,” Benefield said. “That’s uncharacteristic for us this year because we’ve had very few errors.”
Spring Garden’s five miscues exceeded the total of four the Panthers had committed in their first five games.
With Spring Garden trailing 7-6 in the bottom of the sixth, Jake Grogan started a two-out rally when he reached on an error. Johnson singled and Scott tripled for two runs. Scott pitched the first six innings. Smart got two outs in the seventh before a walk and two errors handed Weaver its winning margin. Johnson, Smart and Scott each had three hits to pace the Panthers.
In their semifinal game at Crossville Friday, the Panthers played shorthanded and fell 11-1. Spring Garden scored in the third inning. Hunter Jolly and Grogan had singles. Jolly came home when Anderson hit into a fielder’s choice.
The Panthers open area play next week with a single game at Cedar Bluff Tuesday and a home doubleheader against the Tigers Thursday. Games begin at 4:30 p.m. each day.
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