It’s on the road and facing the number one seed from Region 6-AAAA, but Madison County Red Raiders are in the state baseball playoffs.
A three-game series with Heritage last week, opened the door and the Red Raiders stepped through as the number four seed.
Traveling to Marist Friday afternoon for doubleheader action, Madison County revives competition against the adversary that ended the Red Raiders’ 2008 playoff bid. Game one of the doubleheader starts at 4:30 p.m., May 6. If a tiebreaker game is needed, the third game would be scheduled for Saturday at 4 p.m., also at Marist.
Marist enters the playoffs as the defending state champion and the current number one seed from Region 6-AAAA, going undefeated in region play and 23-3 in regular season games.
Madison County is 17-9 overall and finished 9-6 during region season play, prior to the region tournament.
Region Tournament
In the region tournament for playoff seeding, the Red Raiders entered as the number three team from the sub-region to face the number two team on the crossover, Heritage in a three game series.
Game one
In the series opener, Madison County gained a 5-0 lead and then secured the win 7-5 after seven innings.
Leading batters for the Red Raiders were J. Hardman, 2-for-3 with an RBI; Seawright, 2-for-3 with an RBI; B. Hardman, 1-for-2 with an RBI; and Tiller, 1-for-2 with a home run.
Matt Savage recorded a no decision, pitching one out into the fifth inning, allowing four runs off three hits and four walks and one HBP, while striking out four. Aaron Benner earned the win in relief, pitching for eight outs, giving up one run on one hit and one HBP, fanning five batters. Benner improves to 1-3 on the year.
Game two
In the second game, Heritage showed that it had learned the lesson well from the previous game, scoring early and often.
Heritage put three runs on the board in the first inning, another in the second, two in the fourth and two in the sixth inning to secure an 8-1 win.
Madison County recorded four hits in game two: B. Hardman, J. Hardman, Thomas and Townsend.
Benner started and took the loss on the mound, pitching three and two-thirds innings, allowing six runs off five hits and three walks, striking out three. Townsend and Lance Chandler pitched the other three and one-third innings.
Game three
Playing as the visitors at Madison County, the Red Raiders started off with a four-run lead and held onto the advantage, securing the 8-5 win and a trip to the playoffs.
D. Chandler started on the mound, pitching one and one-third innings. He was relieved by L. Chandler, who added his third win of the season (3-1).
L. Chandler pitched three and two-thirds, allowing two runs on four hits and fanning six batters. Brock Turner marked his return to the mound from injury by closing the last two innings. Turner pitched out of a no out, bases loaded jam to preserve the win.
J. Hardman led on the stick, going 3-for-3 with three RBIs. He went 6-for-9 in the series.
Martin went 2-for-3 with an RBI and Dalton, D. Chandler and Seawright each had a hit.
For a breakdown of the games, see the Madison County Journal.
