BASEBALL: West Laurens batters Metter, stiffed by Tift County

West Laurens found itself on either side of the run rule in a pair of five-inning games early this week, as it posted a fifth-straight win at home on Monday, but then fell to a top-rated 6A powerhouse on the road Tuesday. 

The Raiders rode their third-consecutive double-digit hit and run total to a 12-2 victory over Metter Monday night, but the following afternoon were held to just one base hit in a 10-0 shutout at the hands of a loaded Tift County. 

Region play will resume for West Laurens (14-7, 8-0 region 2-AAAA) next Tuesday, on the other side of several days off for the rest of spring break, when Baldwin visits Dexter to begin a two-game series. 

The Raiders, with 12 hits, had no problem at the plate on Monday, when they jumped on Metter starter Cace West for eight runs – four each – in the first two innings to break the game open quickly. 

They’d add four more in installments of two each, around a scoreless fourth, in the third and fifth to win it early. 

Nelson Loyd walked it off to cap his 4-for-4 day at the plate with a liner back to the mound that ricocheted off of pitcher Ashton Cowart, preventing a play as Kaden Baggett made his way in to score the 12th run. 

Loyd drove in another three with a collection of previous hits putting him a homer shy of the cycle: A double in the first, triple in the second and single in the fourth.

Jakob Sahli’s first career home run, on a solo blast to left for the other run in the fifth, headlined an extensive package of other offensive highlights on the evening for the Raiders. 

Parker Bryant, on a pair of doubles for one RBI, and Jordan Hall, smacking a single and double in three ABs, both finished with two hits each. Jeremiah Baker, with an RBI double in the first, Grant Baker, with a double in the fourth, and Ethan Waldrep, via single in the second, also added solo hits to the cause. 

The 1-for-2 Sahli also drove in one of the four second-inning runs with a sacrifice fly for a second RBI. 

Metter’s only two runs in the three-hitter came in the second and third against the Raiders’ Ethan Waldrep, who got the win in his first career start. The junior struck out four with no walks, but did hit four batters to thrust home the Tigers’ second run in an otherwise hitless third. 

His unearned first, originating with an early single by Vanderbilt commit Rustan Rigdon, came around to score on a throwing error. 

Cohen Cardwell allowed one hit in relief, after checking in to get the final out of the third, on a leadoff single by Dallas Jones to open the fourth, though Bryant threw him out trying to steal third base. The remaining five batters, two more for Cardwell in the fourth and the final three for Cason Pollock in the top of the fifth, went down consecutively.

Both pitchers struck out one each. 

Metter’s staff, which also included portions of two innings in relief for Sutton Dekle and Hanley Sims, walked five and struck out only three. 

A pull double to right field for Grant Baker gave West Laurens its only hit of Tuesday’s trip to Tifton. It came in the fifth and final inning against a second pitcher in John Dorman, who otherwise continued the no-hitter he was handed by Blue Devils’ starter Tyler VanSumeren through the first four innings. 

The pair of pitchers consistently mixed up the speed and shape of their stuff to keep the Raiders guessing at the plate. VanSumeren, a Kennesaw State commit, struck out six. Dorman fanned two. 

Tift second baseman Tyler Holmes made two key plays to rob West Laurens of potential hits, reaching out to snag a Parker Bryant line drive for a first out in the opening inning and then getting to a two-out Grant Baker grounder up the middle for an off-balance throw to first that got the Blue Devils a third out of the second. Jeremiah Baker, who had drawn a walk and advanced to scoring position on a wild pitch, would have scored to tie the game at 1-1 had the trickler seen its way through the hole up the middle. 

Baggett drew the other two of Van Sumeren’s three walks to reach in his pair of trips to the plate, but was left stranded in the first inning and put out when Tift wiped the bases clean in the fourth on a 5-4-3 double play. 

The only thrice-beaten Blue Devils (17-3 overall with two of their three losses coming to top-ranked Houston County in a region series late last week) were dominant with 12 hits at the plate. 

Two-hole hitter Landon Parrish went 4-for-4 with three RBIs, including the walk-off single that brought in the 10th run to end it in their half of the fifth. He also picked up two RBIs with a triple, one of the team’s five hits for six runs in a 10-at bat second inning that proved West’s biggest setback. 

Dorman, Mac Brooks and Luke Ellerbee finished with two hits apiece. 

VanSumeren drew a bases-loaded walk against the starter Baggett, who walked four and struck out five in two six-hit innings, to open the scoring in the first. 

After stretching the lead to 7-0 in the second, Tift County faced a new pitcher in Cardwell, who kept its four hitters quiet with the exception of a Parrish single. Great catches on a foul pop up by the new catcher Baggett, then on flies to center by Jayden Stanley and right by Hall, got the Raiders out of their only scoreless inning. 

Mac Brooks led off the fourth with a double, and scored on a sac fly for VanSumeren’s second RBI to make it 8-0. Bryant came on to pitch the fifth, which Ellerbee, Brady Moretz and Parrish led off with three hits in a row to quickly score the final two.