By By Adam Robinson
In their only game against the Escambia County Blue Devils since opening the Escambia County tournament and their season, the T.R. Miller Tigers baseball team ended their season with a 4-3 win over the Blue Devils in eight innings Monday night at home.
The Blue Devils whipped the Tigers back on Feb. 29 at W.S. Neal, 14-3.
James Hamric went the distance on the mound for the Tigers and earned the win. Hamric went eight innings and allowed three runs (two earned) on three hits, walked one and struck out seven in the one-run win.
Corey Williams was 2-for-5 with one RBI and that one RBI proved to be the biggest one of the night.
With the game tied at 3-3 after the end of seven innings, the game was forced into extra innings.
Hamric led off the top of the eighth inning with a walk as Seth Holland and Will Waters singled to load the bases with no outs.
That would bring up Williams with the bases loaded and no outs and he drove the ball up the middle of the infield for the game winning run as the Tigers took the win 4-3.
Escambia County struck first in the game with a lead off double. A Blue Devil single scored the first run of the game to give Escambia County a 1-0 lead after a half inning of play.
The lead was short-lived for the Blue Devils as the Tigers scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning to grab a 2-1 lead.
Seth Holland led the inning off with a walk and then advanced to second on a Will Waters single to put runners at first and second with no outs.
A Corey Williams’ single loaded the bases for the Tigers as Derek Busby reached on a Blue Devil error to score Holland.
John Mathieu would then reach on a walk and score Waters for a 2-1 lead.
After Escambia County tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the fourth inning, the Tigers added a run in the bottom of the fifth inning when Mathieu launched a ball off the center field fence to score Christopher Griffin who had reach on a hit-by-pitch to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead.
The Blue Devils tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the sixth inning as neither team scored and the game was forced into extra innings.
After a scoreless top of the eighth inning for the Blue Devils, the Tigers loaded the bases in their half of the inning as Williams singled in the game-winning run for the Tigers to give them the 4-3 win to end the game and their season.
Holland was 1-for-3 with one run scored, as Waters was 2-for-5 with a run scored.
Williams was 2-for-5 with the game winning RBI, as Mathieu was 2-for-3 with two RBIs in the win.
Cody Vickery led the Blue Devils at the dish going 2-for-3 with a double, single and an RBI.
Michael Thomas finished the day 1-for-4 with a double and one run scored. Nico Johnson chipped in with a single and two RBI.
ECHS head coach Jonathan Rasberry was unavailable for comment at press time.
Adam Prestridge contributed to this article.