Hartselle hammers Athens for area title

By By Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
ATHENS - Faced with the possibility of an early end to the season, the Hartselle Tigers wrapped up a spot in the playoffs in the final area series with Athens.
Tuesday, the Tigers clinched the Class 5A, Area 15 championship with a 10-5 victory over Athens to complete the two-game sweep of the Golden Eagles.
The area championship was the 19th for head coach William Booth.
The Tigers improved to 20-22 overall with the sweep of Athens. Hartselle has now gone 18-9 since winning just once in its first 13 games of the season.
Blankenship faced just 19 batters and allowed just two hits. He finished with two strikeouts.
Blankenship threw just 74 pitches in the win and faced five batters in an inning just once - in the fourth inning when he allowed a pair of singles before pitching out of the jam without allowing a run.
Blankenship’s outing was the second clutch pitching performance of the series. Senior Tres Austin beat Athens in the opening game Monday.
Ethan Howell, the Tigers’ third pitcher of the game, allowed one hit over two innings to earn the save.
Hartselle broke open the scoreless game with six runs in the top half of the fifth inning with five hits.
Mac Hendrix and Drew Cowan both drove in runs with singles and Logan Cain slugged a 3-run homer to cap the inning.
The Tigers added to the lead in the sixth when Robby Reece hit his sixth home run of the season _ all coming in a span of just seven games.
Athens scored five runs in the inning to trim Hartselle’s advantage to 9-5.
In the seventh inning, Andrew Hampton walked and scored on a wild pitch to make it 10-5.
Hartselle 6, Athens 5
Jackson Reeves doubled in the bottom of the seventh inning to send Hartselle to a win in the first game of the series.
The game-winning hit was Reeves’ second 2-run double of the game.
Tres Austin went the distance to earn the win for the Tigers. He has complete games in all three of the Tigers’ area series.
Robby Reece hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning that gave Hartselle a 4-3 advantage.
Reece, who missed most of the season with a shoulder injury has homered five times in the Tigers’ last six games.
Athens had two hits in the top of the sixth inning and scored twice to take a 5-4 lead.
The Golden Eagles set down Hartselle in order in the sixth inning, including a pair of called third strikes that resulted in the ejection of Hartselle assistant coach Chris Heaps.
Athens put a runner on in the top of the seventh with a walk. But after a pair of sacrifices, the Tigers got out of the jam when Austin got the final out on a grounder to short.
Wes Letson led off the seventh with an infield single. Ryan Joy and Reece followed with singles to load the bases to set up Reeves’ game-winning hit.