Lee Academy snapped a five-game losing streak at home on senior night with a 12-2 victory in five innings against Lee, Ark., Monday.
It was a non-division matchup Monday, but the Colts (8-10, 3-5) baseball team has already secured the No. 3 spot in their district. Lee will close the regular season with a division matchup at home against Kirk Academy Friday. The B game starts at 4 p.m. with the varsity matchup following at 6.
Kirk won the first two matchups at home against Lee.
“Wins are always good, no matter how you can get them,” said Lee coach Brock McKnight after the win Monday. “We played well tonight. A few things we need to work on, but we’ll get prepared to play Kirk on Friday.”
Lee will face Carroll Academy in a best-of-three-series in the first round of the playoffs. The series will begin at Lee at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The two teams will play at Carroll Academy Thursday, April 22. If Lee and Carroll split the first two games, a doubleheader will be at Carroll April 22.
In Monday’s win, the Colts led 3-2 after two-and-a-half innings, but scored four runs in the bottom of the third and five in the bottom of the fourth to extend their advantage to 12-2. The game automatically ends if one team leads by at least 10 runs after five innings.
“We hit well,” McKnight said. “We had to make some adjustments late and figured it out and got it done.”
Ethan Dalton, Tanner Fava and Russell Cook all drove in runs for Lee during the fourth inning. All five runs came with two outs.
“It says a lot,” McKnight said. “You’ve just got to kind of not really do a whole lot and just stay within yourself and just get the bats to the next guy.”
Lee finished with 13 hits.
Fava, Chandler Wells, and Graydon Gullick each had multiple hits for the Colts. Wells and Fava each collected three hits to Lee. Wells had three runs and two RBIs. Fava had one run and three RBIs. Gullick had two runs, one RBI and one walk.
Wells and Andrew Williamson had three stolen bases each. Williamson had one hit, one RBI and one run.
Fava, Gullick and Luke Crumpton, who walked and scored, had one stolen base each.
Cook threw a complete game on the mound allowing five hits and two runs while striking out five and walking one.
McKnight has not made a decision about the pitching rotation for Friday and the playoffs.
“I’m going to think about it tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday and we’ll make a decision on Thursday,” said McKnight Monday night.
The Colts seniors started the game and came up with the win.
“It feels good. It always feels good to win on senior night,” McKnight said. “There’s a lot going on with the presentation and everything, but they played well. I’m proud of them.”
McKnight stressed the importance of finishing the regular season well Friday going into the playoffs.
“It’s very crucial. We need to go ahead and play well so we can have a little bit of momentum going into the playoffs,” McKnight said. “Once you get into the playoffs, take it a game at a time and see what happens.”
