Lamar digs a hole too deep against Lewisville
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
Sometimes a rough start can just be too much to overcome and sometimes they seem to take the life out of a team.
That was one of the main reasons for the Lamar Silver Foxes 10-2 loss to the Lewisville Lions, its third loss of the season to its region rival, this past Friday at home for the opening game of the upper state championship.
The first inning was a rough start for Lamar as Lewisville scored five runs, all with two outs; the way those runs were scored was even more demoralizing.
“We had a chance to make a play there with two outs and we didn’t make it,” Lamar head coach Adam Windham said. “We cut the ball off when we shouldn’t have. If we make that play who know what happens, but that’s a good baseball team and we gave them way too many outs and they took advantage of it when we did.”
With runners on first and second for Lewisville and two outs, the Lions came through with an RBI single and from there the inning went straight downhill.
Following the RBI single, Lamar starting pitcher Audy Tedder hit the next three batters resulting in two more runs, walked a run and threw a wild pitch, resulting in a run.
The first inning was not the only inning Lewisville found a little two-out magic. Still up 5-0 in the top of the third, the Lions connected for a two-out, two-RBI single off of reliever Ace James.
Down 7-0 Lamar finally got the goose egg off the board in bottom of the fifth with a RBI groundout by Tedder, scoring first baseman Tanner Vause.
The fifth inning started off with a lot of promise and had the looks of something big, but instead fizzled out.
Vause and James led the fifth off with back-to-back singles and a wild pitch put both in scoring position with no outs. After the RBI groundout put James on third with just one out, leadoff hitter Jaquez Lucas struck out and Jadarius Munford grounded out resulting in the runner on third being stranded.
Lewisville answered Lamar’s one run in the fifth with three more in the sixth. Two of the three runs the Lions scored in the inning came off of errors and the other came from a perfectly executed hit and run.
Errors were another major problem for the Silver Foxes as Lamar committed a total of six errors, including four by the second baseman.
Lamar enjoyed a little of that two-out magic Lewisville had scoring one more run in the bottom of the seventh when Lewisville’s second baseman bobbled a ball letting Vause score again.
Vause was the leading offensive player for the Silver Foxes, not only scoring Lamar’s only two runs of the game, but also went 3-3 at the plate in a game when hits were coming at a premium.
The Silver Foxes now must come out of the loser’s bracket if it is to move on and compete for the state championship.
Playoff Recap
Lamar fought off elimination on Saturday night, rebounding at home against Ridge Spring-Monetta.
The Silver Foxes defeated the Trojans 10-2 and will play the loser of the Lewisville vs McBee game in their second straight elimination game.