PRC’s baseball team defeats Forest Hill in the first round of the state playoffs
Published 7:00 am Saturday, April 21, 2018
CARRIERE — Pearl River Central swept Forest Hill 2-0 in a best of two-out-of-three series Thursday afternoon.
The Blue Devils won 18-0 and 22-0 in the two games, respectively.
With the first round win in the series, PRC (20-6) moves on to the second round of the Class 5A state playoffs and will face West Harrison, the champions of region 8.
“Rigell Robinson will be our starting pitcher in our first game against West Harrison,” PRC Head Baseball Coach Neil Walther said. “You want to play your best baseball during this time of the year, so the biggest thing for us this upcoming week is to stay focus. Over the past three years, these guys have won 18 playoff games and hopefully after next week, we can say that we have won 20 playoff games.”
The first game of round two is set for Friday, April 27, at 7 p.m. at West Harrison. The next day, the series will resume at PRC.
In the first game against the Patriots, the Blue Devils scored 14 of its 18 runs in the first inning.
Runs scored by Cameron Brunson, Blaine Catoire, Tristan Schlottmann and Ethan Songy later in the game gave PRC an 18-0 lead.
For the Blue Devils, Hayden Dunhurst, Mason Treat, Josh Kennedy and Schlottmann each went 1-for-1 at the plate and combined for seven RBIs. Nolan Walther was 1-for-2 with three RBIs.
Blake Craft pitched for PRC the first game of the day.
During the second game, the Blue Devils scored 16 runs off of 11 walked batters in the first inning. Later on, PRC added six more runs to its lead.
Jared Dickens, Rigell Robinson, Eli Lee, Songy, Treat and Walther each went 1-for-1 while at-bat and combined for eight RBIs. Austen Izzio was 1-for-2 with two RBIs.
Treat, Austin Dean and Dunhurst pitched during the second game of the series.