The Parklane Pioneers put too many extra runners on base, and Jackson Prep’s bats took care of the surplus with five extra base hits that drove in nine of their runs in a 10-6 victory on Tuesday.
Four of the runs — the difference in the ballgame — were scored by runners who had been walked.
Jackson Prep reached base seven times on bases on balls, but the Pioneers weren’t as fortunate.
“We outhit them, and we didn’t get anything cheap offensively,” Parklane head coach Ken Jackson said.
The Pioneers tallied 13 hits to Prep’s eight, but constant baserunners kept pressure on the Parklane defense, which held up, and on starter Eric Boyd.
Prep scored at least one run in each inning from the second to the sixth. Alex Price pitched a perfect seventh for Parklane.
“We gave them too many opportunities,” Jackson said. “This wasn’t an Eric Boyd performance.”
Parklane’s ace wasn’t spot on as he had been last week in a shutout of Hillcrest Christian. His seven free passes cost the Pioneers, but some of the big hits may look a little different come Saturday at Smith-Wills Stadium, when the two teams will finish the series for the No. 1 seed from the south.
“There are some positives out of this,” Jackson said. “All our hits would have been hits anywhere. Some of their balls will be routine fly balls on Saturday.”
Two of Prep’s home runs were lofted over the closer, but taller right field wall, not clearing it by much. One of the run-scoring doubles that hit off the wall was lofted to right as well.
The Patriots hit three home runs, a solo shot in the second, a three-run homer in the fourth and a three-run blast to left in the sixth to put the game out of reach.
Parklane’s Russ Brown answered the first one with a solo shot of his own to lead off the bottom of the second. The bottom of the order responded to the 6-1 ballgame in the fourth with four runs on five hits. Brown started it off with a double and Chance Schmidt followed with one of his three singles on the night.
Blake Brown drove in a run with a single through the right side. Alex Langhart singled in two runs and Josh Smith scored Langhart on a grounder to shortstop.
With the score 6-5, Prep took over the game, and two consecutive walks set up an RBI single to right to make it 7-5.
In the sixth, a one-out single and a two-out walk put runners on for Kaleb Barlow’s three-run shot to left.
Parklane didn’t answer in either the fifth or sixth and managed a run in the seventh on a Russ Brown RBI single to give him two on the night.
The loss on senior night puts Parklane one game behind Prep for the No. 1 seed in the playoffs at 12-4 in division play. The Pioneers will have to win both games on Saturday to take over first otherwise they will face two possible road games in the first round of the MPSA AAA Division I playoffs.
