Pirates advance to second round of playoffs with sweep over Escambia

By BRIAN HAMILTON, Editor

After a season of ups and downs and following an evening of destruction in Pickens County, the Pickens Academy baseball team  traveled four hours to Atmore, Ala. to face Escambia Academy on Friday April 19, with the winner earning a berth in the second round of the AISA Class 2A playoffs.

“Some of the players still didn’t have power when they got up and went to the school that morning,” Pickens Academy coach Jeremy Pate said. “By the time we left that morning, Alabama Power hadn’t had people come in yet. They all came in that afternoon.”

The Pirates rallied to take the first game by a score of 3-2 and then blew open the second game early on with a 12-6 win.

“We had everybody against us who didn’t think we could even do it,” Pate said. “That’s all we asked of them is to go down there and compete, no matter what the circumstances are. They went down there and competed and picked up a lot of confidence and we came away with two big wins. That was huge.”

Pickens Academy, 3

Escambia Academy, 2

The opening game between the Pirates and Cougars went into the ninth inning tied at 2-2 until Austin Goodman hit a double to send Seth Peeks home for the 3-2 win.

Pickens Academy went ahead 1-0 in the top of the first inning when Peeks scored on a wild pitch. Bodie Parham then stole third base and  Clark Noland stole second, leaving two runners in scoring position and John Michael Smith was walked. Hayden Dyer was then walked on the next at bat, sending Parham home for a 2-0 PA lead.

Escambia would cut the Pirates’ lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the first inning and tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning. The score remained 2-2 until the top of the ninth when Goodman hit a double on a ground ball to left field to score Peeks for a 3-2 lead.

Smith would close the game out on the mound in the bottom of the ninth for a 3-2 win and a 1-0 series lead. The senior pitcher struck out five batters on the evening.

“We had two outs and had Seth come up and hit a deep fly ball to center field that made it over the center fielder for a double,” Pate said. “At that point, I had done made up my mind that if Austin puts one in the outfield, I’m sending Seth. It was a risky move, but I did it because at the end of the day, they’ve still got to catch it twice and make good throws.”