Redan’s Bernard Moon (1) celebrates his solo homer with Tyrell Wyatt after putting the Raiders up 1-0. (Photo by Mark Brock)
The Appling County Pirates took advantage of a seventh inning error by the Redan Raiders to push across the go-ahead run in a 2-1 victory to take game three of the Class 2A high school baseball series and advance to the semifinals.
Appling (23-11) had a runner on first and one out against pitcher Bernard Moon when enticed the Pirates’ Collin Ewaldsen into what looked like a tailor made double-play grounder to second. A misplay on the grounder allowed both runners to be safe and brought Greyson Hall to the plate.
Moon got Hall to ground to short where Derek Peoples Jr. moved to his left, fielded and threw out the Appling base runner at third for the second out of the inning. Relief pitcher Dayson Griffis was next up and laced single into left to score Ewaldsen to push the Pirates out to the 2-1 lead.
Moon got Dawson Griffis to fly out to end the inning and the Raiders (21-12) had one last at bat to extend the game or win the series.
Luis De La Cruz came to bat with one out in the bottom of the seventh and hit an infield single in the hole at short to give the Raiders a much-needed base runner. Griffis hit Adriel Martinez to put runners on first and second.
Griffis worked out of the jam with a strikeout and a ground ball to second to end the game and Redan’s season.
Redan took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning when Moon hit one into the trees deep over the center field fence.
Appling answered with a run in the top of the fourth to tie the game at 1-1 as an infield play failed to get an out off the bat of Jack Coleman.
Redan’s Derek Peoples Jr. was called upon for 1 2/3 innings of relief in Redan’s 2-1 loss to Appling County. (Photo by Mark Brock)
The Pirates got a runner on second in the sixth inning and Coleman hit a double into the left field corner where Redan outfielder Josh Westbrook got the ball in quickly to Peoples who cut down the baserunner on a bang-bang play at the plate by catcher Martinez to keep the score tied heading into the bottom of the inning.
Appling turned a double play in the bottom of the sixth to get out of a jam and keep the score at 1-1 heading into the final inning.
Bernard Moon went 2-2 at the plate with the home run and took the loss in two innings of relief giving up an unearned run. Luis De La Cruz had the other lone Raider hit in the game and went three and one third innings on the mound.
Patrick Crosby pitched four innings to start the game for Appling while Dayson Griffis went the final three to get the win in relief. The pair combined to limit the Raider bats to just three hits in the game. The Pirates had as many hits (six) in the game as they had in the first two games combined. Mason Williamson was 2-3 at the plate for Appling.