By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

WEDOWEE – After beating Ranburne in the first round of the 2A baseball playoffs, the 2A Area 9 champion Vincent Yellow Jackets traveled to Wedowee to take on 2A Area 10 winner Randolph County. After a closely contested first game that Randolph County won 2-0, the Tigers pulled away from Vincent in the second game, winning by a 9-1 final and ending the Yellow Jackets’ season.

 

Game 1. Randolph County 2 – Vincent 0

While Ethan Davis took the mound of the Yellow Jackets in the first game and threw admirably, tossing 100 pitches over six innings while giving up two unearned runs on seven hits, he did not get much in the form of run support from Vincent, as the Yellow Jackets only mustered four hits in the opener. Randolph County managed to squeeze two runs across the plate in the bottom of the second inning, which turned out to be enough to secure the win.

Cole Fincher went 2-for-3 from the plate to lead the Yellow Jackets’ offense in the opener while Saylor Carroll and Caemon Jernigan each had a hit as well.

 

Game 2. Randolph County 9 – Vincent 1

While the first game was close throughout, the second was not so much as Randolph County opened up a 5-1 lead after the third inning and held a 9-1 lead after the fifth. The Tigers only mustered four hits in the game, but managed to draw six walks and took advantage of an ill-timed Vincent error to reach their prodigious run total.

Matthew Swift started the game for the Yellow Jackets, but only lasted 2.1 innings, giving up five earned runs on three hits and three walks before DC Ayala came in in relief. Ayala only lasted 0.2 innings, giving up one hit, one run and two walks before Carroll came in and pitched the final four innings, giving up three runs on no hits while striking out five.

Jordan Smith went 2-for-4 from the plate to lead Vincent while Swift went 1-for-4 with an RBI as well.

 

Vincent ended the season with a 16-15 overall record and won the 2A Area 9 regular season championship.