Panthers fall twice Saturday to Heritage
Published 7:00 pm Tuesday, May 16, 2017
- Carter Stewart (18) slides safely around a tag into second base Saturday for Tiftarea Academy.
TIFTON — The 2017 baseball season ended for the Tiftarea Academy Panthers Saturday, with the squad dropping two games to Newnan’s Heritage Hawks.
The Panthers had won the opening game of the series, 12-0, but saw the Hawks advance to the semifinals with 5-2 and 18-3 victories in the doubleheader.
Heritage took a 4-0 lead in Saturday’s opener before Tiftarea came back with a single run in the fourth inning.
Cain Cooper started the frame by being hit by a pitch. A single by Hunter Hartsfield and a fielder’s choice by Brandon Prudhomme advanced him to third. Cooper then scored on a groundout by McRay Lentz.
The Hawks added an insurance run in the fifth to increase the lead to 5-1 before Tiftarea scored in the bottom of the seventh.
Grant Hall doubled in Casen Royal for the final run.
Prudhomme and Anthony Brey split pitching duties during the game, Prudhomme tossing four innings. Brey had three innings of two-hit ball.
Jacob Bryant held the Panthers to three hits. Hartsfield collected two of them and Hall had one.
Tiftarea’s fortunes turned sour in the final game of the series.
They trailed only 3-0 after three innings, but the Hawk offense picked up its pace with four runs in the fourth, three runs in the sixth and eight runs in the seventh.
Hartsfield scored on a single by McRay Lentz in the fourth inning to put the Panthers on the board. Their other two runs came in the bottom of the seventh frame.
Royal had a base hit to drive in Prudhomme, before he scored on an error off the bat of Hall.
Dawson Patterson, Cooper, Brey, Bret Bernard, Nate Fortson, Noah Copeland, Royal and Will Matt all had a chance to pitch for Tiftarea. Henry Arnall went the distance for Heritage.
Prudhomme and Royal each recorded two hits for the contest.
The Panthers finished the season with a 21-8 record. They were 8-16 in 2016.
Heritage advanced to play John Milledge Academy in the state Class AAA semifinals. Tiftarea’s Region 3-AAA rival, Deerfield-Windsor, will play Trinity Christian of Sharpsburg in the other final four game.