Lee County baseball eliminated by Walton

LEESBURG — From the very first pitch of Game 1 Wednesday night, Lee County looked to be off of its game.

The Trojans gave up three runs in each of the first two innings and three more in the fifth, which was more than enough for top-ranked Walton to take a 9-2 victory in the first game of the second round of the Georgia High School Association Class AAAAAA state playoffs at Lee County.

In Game 2, the story was a little different, but the result the same. The Trojans cleaned up the fielding and pitching, but the bats still struggled to get going. Lee registered just five hits in the second game and pushed just one run across. The 6-1 loss eliminated the Trojans from the state tournament.

“I don’t think we were ready to play today and I will take the blame for that,” Lee County coach Brandon Brock said. “Walton is a heck of a ball team. We didn’t challenge them like we could have. We wanted to put pressure and we couldn’t make that happen.”

The usually accurate Tyler Goff started the first game for the Trojan but was pulled in the first after walking three of the first five batters.

Walton’s three first-inning runs came on just two hits. The Raiders scattered seven more hits over the next six innings, all of which were singles.

The downfall for the Trojans was the six walks their pitchers issued. They also hit two batters.

“The first two innings, we kind of lost it on the mound and we hadn’t done that all year,” Brock said. “I was surprised to see our two guys that threw a lot of strikes really struggle.”

Lee was able to scratch out a run in the first when Josh Hatcher laced a double over the left fielder’s head to score Garet Morrell, who had worked a walk right before him.

After Hatcher’s hit, the Lee bats disappeared. The only other hit the Trojans mustered was a single by Tyler Simon, which came in the seventh inning when the score was 9-2.

“I didn’t sense tension to begin with,” Brock said. “After they put up some runs in the first game I could kind of sense it a little bit.”

Zac Kristofak started for the Raiders and went six innings. He walked five and hit three but also struck out seven batters.

The Trojans’ other run came on a sacrifice fly by Garrett Suiter in the fifth.

Garet Morrell went 0 for 1 in Game 1 but drew two walks and was hit by a pitch.

Walton opened the second game with a run in the first after Jason Rooks drove Carter Kieboom in with a double. Kieboom reached base on an error.

The Raiders added three more on four hits in the second to take a 4-0 lead.

Morrell started the game but was removed after allowing six runs in four plus innings. He also drove in the Trojans’ lone run in the sixth inning.

The Trojans’ five hits in the second game were all singles.