BRANDON — A line up change ended up being the difference.
Behind the hitting of E.J. Booth and K.J. Roberts, Oak Grove held off Brandon 11-8 in a key Region 3-7A contest at Mark Vinson Field on Friday night.
“Just proud of our guys. A couple of bad things happened and we just had to keep playing and our guys responded the right way and swung the bats really good,” said Oak Grove coach Chris McCardle. “Brandon wasn’t going to quit, they’ve got hitters up and down their lineup and glad we hung on and finished it off.”
The Warriors scored first in the top of the first to take a 1-0 lead as Booth scored on a groundout.
Brandon tied it up in the bottom half as Graydon Walker scored off a Maddox Culpepper double. The Bulldogs took a 2-1 in the second off a balk.
Oak Grove answered with two runs in the third to take a 3-2 lead on a Booth RBI double and a RBI single by Roberts.
The Warriors extended their lead to 6-2 in the fifth as Roberts had a RBI double, Quentin Reuben RBI single, and a Alex Pickett RBI single.
Oak Grove added three more runs in the sixth to stretch their lead to 9-2 on a Reuben two-run double and a Caleb Pfaff RBI single.
In the bottom of the sixth Brandon plated six runs on five hits to cut the Oak Grove lead to 9-8 highlighted by a Mitchell Herrington solo home run and a Tre Adcox two-run single.
In the seventh Roberts came through with a two-run double to right to give Oak Grove the 11-8.
In the bottom half Oak Grove closer Ryne Stevens got the save as he produced two fly outs and a strikeout to end the game.
“K.J. Has been batting leadoff, but we decided to switch it up tonight because Booth is going to be on base and felt like he can relax a little more and be the guy to drive runs in,” McCardle said. “It’s a good one-two punch and I thought offensively we came out like I thought we would and get a big win on the road.”
Roberts finished 3-for-5 with two doubles and five RBI’s to lead Oak Grove, while Booth went 4-for-4 with a double and scored four runs for the Warriors (13-7, 4-2 Region 3-7A).
Coby Caillot (5-1) got the win on the mound for Oak Grove.
“Just had to do my job tonight no matter where I am in the lineup. Coming into the game we knew it was going to be a lot of fastballs, so we knew were going to get a lot of fastballs this game and last at-bat it was three curve balls so I knew what was coming,” Roberts said. “Tuesday night was rough, so we came together as a team and got the job done tonight.”
Adcox had two hits to lead Brandon (15-7, 4-2).
“We didn’t locate well on the mound. When you put guys in plus counts guys in this district they’re going to make you pay for it. We got behind in the count all night and kept having to throw fastballs and they made us pay for it,” said Brandon coach Daniel Best. “K.J. Had an outstanding game for them and he killed us tonight. We will get back to work and get ready for next week.”
