Photo/Kevin Pearcey

PLAS’s Matt Floyd dives to third base in Tuesday’s game against Macon-East.

Knights down PLAS, 8-4, Lady Patriots drop two games

By ROBBY SMITH

Sports Writer

Clay Corbitt went 4-for-5 scored twice and drove in three runs as the Macon-East Academy Knights from Montgomery outlasted the Pike Liberal Arts Patriots 8-4 in the area opener for both teams at Patriot Field Tuesday afternoon.

The Knights (3-1, 1-0 in area play) got on the board

early in the top of the first when Jordan Mills led off with a single, advanced to second on a hit by Corbitt, advanced to third base and scored when Kyle Block into a force play giving Macon East a 1-0 lead.

The score remained that way until the top of the second when the Patriots tied the game at 1-1 when Druid Conrad singled, advanced to second on a hit by Scott Kirby, made it to third and scored on Wes Johnson’s RBI ground out.

Unfortunately, the momentum was short lived for the Patriots who were coming off a week long layoff thanks to the recent rains as the Knights put a two spot in the top of third. The key blow of the inning was a opposite field two run homer by Corbitt over the right center field fence giving MEA a 3-1 advantage.

In the top of the fourth, the Knights added to their lead scoring a pair of runs when Wes Barnett and John Corbitt each led off with singles and Mills reached on an infield hit before Clay Corbitt was hit by a pitch to extend the lead to 4-1. One batter later, Joseph Lee ground out to second base bringing in John Corbitt from third to cap the inning.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Patriots started to creep back into the game scoring a run cutting the deficit to three runs when Conrad walked and advanced to third base on a pair of errors before scoring on a RBI single by Kirby cutting the deficit to 5-2.

With one out in the top of the fifth, the Patriots used a rare long ball as Bill Hughes hit a line drive home run over the left center field to trim the Macon-East lead to 5-3.

Unfortunately, that’s as close the Patriots would get as the Knights broke the game open scoring three runs in the top of the sixth. After Corbitt reached second base on a double which took bad hop over the head of junior shortstop Layton Sanders, he advanced to third base on a balk and scored on a RBI sacrifice fly by Joseph Lee. Three batters later, designated hitter Brian Piazza delivered a RBI double driving in Kyle Dyer to increase the lead to 7-3. One batter later, John Corbitt brought in pinch runner Trey Haiston with a RBI single to cap the inning.

The Patriots ended the scoring by adding one run in the bottom of the sixth when Kirby doubled and scored on Wes Johnson’s RBI double to cap the inning.

Individually, the Knights were also paced by Jordan Mills who went 3-for-5 and scored two runs while Barnett had three hits and drove in one run for MEA and Piazza had two hits and drove in one run in the winning effort.

Matt Floyd had a perfect day at the plate for the Patriots going 4-for-4 while Kirby was 3-for-4 with one run scored. Johnson had one hit and two RBIs for PLAS in a losing cause.

MEA 11-10 PLAS (SB) 1-1

In softball action, the Lady Patriots were defeated soundly in both games by scores of 11-1 and 10-1 Tuesday afternoon. In the first game, Mallory Sanders collected two singles and Anna Fannin singled while the scoring the only run of the game for the Lady Patriots.

The second game saw Macon-East blow open a close game scoring seven runs in the top of the third. Amanda Hayes scored one run while Malorie and Melissa Sanders each had one hit for the Lady Patriots (1-1 overall, 0-1 in area) in a losing cause.

The Patriots return to action this Thursday afternoon when they travel to Auburn for another region game against Lee-Scott Academy. The first pitch is set for 3 p.m.