After winning the series opener at home, the Parklane Pioneers weren’t as fortunate on the road Thursday in the final two games against Madison-Ridgeland Academy.
The Pioneers (10-4, 3-3) scored 10 runs in the final four innings of the first game, but came up short 12-10 and lost 6-4 in the second.
The Pioneers gave up two runs in the first, second and third innings to MRA before starting to put runs of their own on the board.
A six-run fifth inning for the Patriots hurt the Pioneers’ comeback chances.
Even though Parklane had scored two in the fourth and fifth and three more in the sixth, it entered the seventh trailing 12-7.
In the inning, Wes Gill hit a two-run homer and Blake Brown followed with a solo shot of his own for back-to-back home runs to cut the lead to two.
Parklane didn’t put another runner on base, though, and the tying run never came to the plate.
“We started swinging the bat by the fourth, but they already had six runs,” Parklane head coach Michael Clements said. “We jumped in a hole and tried to dig out of it and never could get out of it.”
Chance Schmidt tripled and Brown finished a triple short of the cycle, while Gill added a single to go with his homer. Dontrell Sargent and Austin Terrell each singled, as well.
The hit for Terrell extended his hit streak to 13 games. It would also be his last as the Patriots held him hitless in the second game of the night.
The Pioneers gave up four runs in the first and two more in the third, while they scored two in the first and third to stay close.
Josh Armstreet hit a two-run homer, while Ben Kavanay and Kyle Adams singled twice. Gill added a single, but Parklane wasn’t able to put together a rally late.
“We were snake-bit a little,” Clements said. “We were putting the bat on the ball, hitting line drives, but they made several diving catches in the outfield and their shortstop made stabs deep in the hole for outs.”
Alex Price pitched all six innings for the Pioneers and had to work around four Pioneer errors.
Parklane plays Oak Forest on the road Saturday with junior varsity starting at 4:30.
