McMichael played 13 seasons with the Bears from 1981 to 1993, and ranks second only to Richard Dent in team history with 92.5 sacks. Matt Zahn reports.
Jon Johnson ARITON – For the second time in as many weeks, Ariton will have to win a third-and-deciding game if it wants to continue its run at a third straight Class 2A state championship. The Purple Cats easily handled Tuscaloosa Academy 11-1 in the opener of the best-of-three series on Thursday, but the Knights came out on the winning end of a 5-3 decision in the nightcap in the second round of the playoffs.
The deciding game is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m., with the winner advancing to play Pike Liberal Arts next week in the quarterfinals. The Patriots swept Horseshoe Bend 14-3 and 14-1 on Thursday in their playoff series. “I mean, we were in this boat last week,” Ariton coach Bob Pickett said of eventually winning two of three at Bayshore Christian. “We’ve been in this boat before. Even though I’ve got a young team, a lot of these guys were in the dugout when we went to the if-game twice last year. We have experience there, so that’s a good thing. People are also reading… “We have good pitching and I have full confidence in my team that they will show up and compete, and that’s all you can ask for.” Three throwing errors cost Ariton in the bottom of the sixth inning of the second game as Tuscaloosa Academy scored three times to break a 2-2 tie. Some errors on the basepaths late in the game were also costly for the Purple Cats. “This late in the year, you just can’t do those things,” Pickett said. “It put us where we were down multiple runs in the last inning. It’s hard when you’ve only scored two the whole game to try and scratch three in the last inning.”Game 1Ariton 11, Tuscaloosa Academy 1 After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first on a solo homer by Cody Faulkner to lead off the game, the Purple Cats promptly responded by scoring seven runs in the bottom half of the inning. Brodie Lowery led off with a walk then Aven Cook and Wells Ganey were both hit by pitches from Harwood Beeker to load the bases. Easton Kilpatrick then brought in the first run with a sacrifice fly to right field. Pierce Gill reached on an infield hit to bring in the second run and Conner Davidson followed with an RBI single into left field to make it 3-1. A groundout to second off the bat on Gabe Jones scored another run. Two batters later, Bryce Odom doubled over third base for an RBI to make it a 5-1 advantage. Lowery then connected on a double into the gap between right and center field to bring in Hayes Hammock, who had walked two batters earlier, and Odom, for a 7-1 lead.The final three runs came in the fourth, the first when Odom singled in Gill. With runners at second and third, Lowery grounded to the first baseman and the ball was bobbled. Lowery, with a head-first slide, beat the toss from the first baseman over to Beeker as two runs crossed the plate. After Tuscaloosa Academy got a single from Mark Morris and a walk from Kaleb Colgrove to open the fifth and a sacrifice bunt by Mills Turnipseed to move them over, Kilpatrick got two fly outs to center field to end the game by the 10-run rule.Game 2Tuscaloosa Academy 5, Ariton 3 Ariton, the visiting team on the scoreboard for the second game, opened the scoring in the first inning when Ganey scored on an infield throwing error off the bat of Kilpatrick. Tuscaloosa Academy took the lead in the bottom of the inning on a two-run homer over the left field fence off the bat of Russell Cole. It stayed that way until the fourth when Kilpatrick doubled to lead off the inning and later scored on a wild pitch. It looked as though the Purple Cats were going to break back on top in the sixth when Kilpatrick sent a fly ball that was caught in shallow center field with one out and Ganey at third, but as Ganey tagged and headed for the plate, the center fielder unloaded a perfect throw to get the runner out. In the bottom of the sixth, Preston Lancaster led off with a single and Beeker doubled down the right field line to put runners at second and third with nobody out. Starting pitcher Austin Evans then got a grounder to the shortstop, but the throw was wide of first, allowing Lancaster to score. After a sacrifice bunt moved Beeker to third, Kaleb Colgrove drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to deep center field in making it 4-2. A third run would come in on a throwing error, putting the Knights up 5-2 going to the seventh. Gill led off with a single for the Purple Cats in the final inning, but was thrown out trying to steal. He was initially called safe, but it was overturned after the first base umpire ruled Gill had run out of the basepath attempting to elude the tag. The next batter, Davidson, unloaded on a pitch for a home run, cutting the lead to 5-3. Jones then sent a high, fly ball to deep center field that appeared to be lost in the lights and it fell to the ground in front of the centerfielder. But Tuscaloosa Academy pitcher Ellis Hamiter got a strikeout and then a groundout to preserve the victory.“You can’t be mad at Austin Evans,” Picket said. “He came out and didn’t have his best stuff and gave up the home run … but he gets you to the sixth … we’ve got to produce on offense. “And hats off to their guy. He did a good job finding the zone and mixing it up and kept us off-balance.” Jon Johnson is sports editor of the Dothan Eagle and can be reached at jjohnson@dothaneagle.com or 334.712.7965. Support his work and that of other Eagle journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at dothaneagle.com. Follow Jon Johnson on Twitter @eaglesportsedJon Johnson Sports Editor Follow Jon Johnson Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today
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