Prestonsburg, Ky Talan Pollack yoinked a grand slam and Lawrence Co. ( 20-11 ) held on to beat Paintsville 8-6 in the first round of the 15th Region tournament Monday at Stonecrest.
Talon Pollack rounds second after hitting a grand slam versus Paintsville.
The Tigers scored two in the first inning on a two out base hit up the middle. The Dawgs got two in the fourth on Fletcher’s homer and Pollack scoring on a Paintsville error to tie the game.
Lawrence Co. scored six runs in the fifth inning on Pollack’s grand slam, Abner Collinsworth base hit and another Tiger error to go up 8-2.
Paintsville scored two runs in the sixth and seventh and had the lead run at the plate before Cody Crum caught a fly ball to end the game.
Eli Fletcher in the dugout after blasting a solo homer against Paintsville.
Pollack also doubled, had four runs batted in and scored twice, Eli Fletcher hit a solo homer for the Bulldogs first hit in the fourth inning to cut the Paintsville lead in half, Gray Derifield had two hits and scored a run, Abner Collinsworth singled, drove in a run and scored once, Cody Crum and CJ Whitt scored a run.
Braxton Davis throws a pitch against Paintsville in the Region Tournament.
Braxton Davis gave up two runs in the first inning and then settled down to pitch five innings to get the win, Davis allowed three hits, struck out three and two earned runs. Logan Whisenant picked up the save by getting the final out of the ballgame.
The Dawgs will face Pikeville in the semifinals at 6:00 Tuesday after the Panthers beat Pike Co. Central in the second game Monday 14-0.
In the other semifinal at 8:30 on Tuesday it will be Shelby Valley versus Prestonsburg. The Wildcats beat Belfry 8-5 in the third game Monday and the Blackcats routed Johnson Central 10-1 in the final game of the day Monday night.
Lawrence Co. Head Coach Travis Feltner
“ Tip your hat to Paintsville we knew it would be a dog fight. Hands down we knew it was coming and we knew they wouldn’t quit.”
“ Obviously Eli got us going with the home run in the fourth but I can tell you this for sure Jake Derifield in the six run fifth inning was down 0-2 in the count and fought his way to a walk to extend the inning to allow Talan to do what he did. Right the grand slam Grey Derifield got down 0-2 and then got a hit and stole second and then Abner clutches up gets a hit and we end up winning by two runs.”
“ I really thought offensively in the first three innings we barreled up some baseballs that didn’t fall for hits but I thought are guys stayed the course the rest of the way.”
“ I’m very proud of our seniors, I would love for two more wins this week, they have put a lot of work into this program and have had great years and we are going to have them be a big part of it to win two more games.”
