Sports

Eagles’ bid for title ends

• Terrell Academy’s season ends in the third and deciding game against Flint River.

Matt Stewart

DAWSON — Terrell Academy escaped elimination once Saturday. To do it twice was asking too much.

The Eagles forced a decisive Game 3 against Flint River in the GISA Class A Final Four baseball playoffs with a 3-2 win, but a freshman and a big lefthander from Flint River made sure Terrell Academy’s playoff run ended there.

The Wildcats advanced to Saturday’s Class A state title against Westwood with a 9-3 win in Game 3 of the series,  effectively cooling off Terrell Academy’s .500-plus average bats in the playoffs.

The Eagles ended their season at 19-5.

“Not too shabby,” Terrell Academy head coach Dwayne Suggs said of his team’s record and season overall. “We just ran into a team that was peaking and playing better than we were.”

Terrell Academy trailed 3-2 in the fourth inning of Game 3, but knotted the score at 3-all on John Brock’s groundout that plated Chris Dean.

Flint River head coach Bobby Bishop wanted a lead before bringing on staff ace Jay Hamlit, who shut down the Eagles 6-1 in the opener Friday.

Bishop got just that when the Wildcats (17-5) answered in its half of the fourth with three runs, two on Game 3 starting pitcher Zach Elliot’s two-run double, giving Flint River a 6-3 cushion. Elliot also held Terrell Academy to three runs, one earned, over four innings before giving way to Hamlit, the Wildcats’ junior lefthander.

“All I wanted to do is get to the fourth and be either tied or winning,” Bishop said. “Elliot kept us in the game until I could get my ace back in. That was the plan all along.”

Hamlit held the Eagles scoreless over the final two innings and struck out three.

“We haven’t faced many lefties this season,” Suggs said. “It might have hurt us.”

Flint River got even more insurance when freshman catcher Drew Fordham hit a 3-run blast in the sixth inning, his second homer of the day.

Fordham finished Saturday 3-for-6 at the plate with four RBI.

Game 2, however, belonged to the Eagles and starter Brady Copeland, whose 98-pitch, complete-game gem extended the season for at least a few more hours. Copeland struck out five over seven innings allowing two runs, one earned, on just three hits leading to a 3-2 Eagles’ win.

He added a RBI sacrice fly that scored Chandler Farley, part of a three-run first inning for the Eagles. Christopher Hunter added a two-run double with two outs that scored Amp Landrum and Gil Brown.

That would be all Terrell Academy would get in Game 2, but Copeland didn’t need any more, although things did get interesting in the bottom of the seventh.

With the Eagles ahead 3-2 with two outs and a Wildcats’ runner on second, Flint River’s Ethan Strickland sent a shot over the left field fence that landed about 10-15 feet foul. Copeland came back and ended the game on a groundout to force Game 3.

Brock was the only Terrell Academy hitter to have multiple hits in either game. He went 2-for-4 in Game 2 and finished the day 2-for-6 with a RBI at the plate. Dean went 2-for-5 with a RBI during the doubleheader. Hunter was 1-for-4 with two RBI.

Flint River was led Saturday by Fordham, Chet Harris (3-for-6, RBI) and Cam Short, who went 3-for-3 with a RBI in Game 3.

Despite losing four key seniors from its Final Four team this season, Suggs believes a repeat is in store for the Eagles in ‘09, even if he won’t be there to see it.

“I think they’ll be right back here at the same time next year,” said Suggs, who will be returning to Lee County next season to be an assistant varsity fast-pitch softball coach. Suggs had assisted with junior varsity at Lee County last season before coming to Terrell Academy, but recently earned his college degree at 42 and will come back to Lee County High to be closer to his son, Matthew, who plays for the Trojans.

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