Hartselle splits first two games of playoff series with Homewood
For the Enquirer
The Hartselle Tigers split the first two games of their second-round playoff series on the road at Homewood last week. They defeated the Patriots 3-1 in Game 1 before dropping a 3-2 decision in Game 2. The third game of the series was played on Monday night, after press time. The series was pushed back a day due to the weather.
Hartselle 3, Homewood 1 The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third when Cole Miles doubled to bring home Cain Falciani and Easton Nelms, who both reached base earlier in the inning. Hartselle would later load the bases to threaten for more runs but come up empty.
They added a run in the top of the sixth when Keaton Lance doubled home Braden Weathers, who doubled earlier in the inning.
Homewood cut the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth and threatened in the seventh before back-to-back strikeouts from Jace Meadows ended the game.
Meadows put on a strong performance with a complete game victory. He allowed only one run on four hits while striking out eight.
Cole Miles led the Tigers at the plate with two hits, including a double, and two RBIs. Lance added a hit and an RBI, while Nelms, Weathers and Falciani each had a hit and a run scored.
Homewood 3, Hartselle 2 Runs were hard to come by in Game 2 of the series as both teams could only plate runners in the third inning.
Homewood scored three in the top of the third when they capitalized on two walks with back-to-back doubles.
Hartselle responded in the bottom of the third with two runs to cut the lead to 3-2. Cole Griffin singled to give the Tigers a base runner. With two outs, Nelms doubled to center, scoring Chris Hutson, who was running for Griffin. Miles then singled to left to drive home Nelms. Hartselle pitchers kept the Patriots at bay as they threatened in both the fifth and sixth innings. Starting pitcher Connor Stiles struck out two in the bottom of the fifth with two runners on base,
Homewood, Page B-2 while Asher Doepel got a strikeout in the sixth to end the inning in the same situation.
Unfortunately, the Tigers couldn’t capitalize on the strong pitching performance as they too were held down by a strong performance from Homewood’s Nickoli.
Nelms led the Tigers at the plate with a hit, an RBI, a run scored and two walks. Miles had a hit and an RBI. Griffin added two hits.
Stiles took the loss after pitching 5.2 innings, allowing three runs on five hits while striking out seven. Doepel pitched 1.1 scoreless innings of relief, striking out two.
