Paxton baseball moves on in Class A regional play

By RANDY DICKSON

Florida Freedom Newspapers

PAXTON - Jeff Bradley copied a page from the late Billy Martin's book of baseball Tuesday night.

Paxton might not have been playing pure "Billy Ball," but the Bobcat form of "Bradley Ball" was mighty successful in the Class 1A regional quarterfinal game with Graceville.

Playing small ball, the Bobcats scored five runs in the fifth inning to take a 6-2 win over Graceville.

Junior pitcher Colby Forehand went the distance, giving up one earned run and striking out eight as he won in the regional quarterfinals for a second straight year. This is the third straight trip to the regional semifinals for the Bobcats.

Paxton (10-9) will host rival Laurel Hill in a rematch of the District 1-A tournament championship game Friday at 7 p.m. The Hoboes picked up their first tournament win 25 years beating Malone Tuesday.

"It was kind of one of those deals where we hit it a little bit and finally got some pressure on them and were able to take advantage of some situations when they didn't cover it," Bradley said.

The Tigers scored in the first inning to take the early lead, but Paxton tied things up in the second as Zac Forehand scored on a single by Rodney Fierrera. The Bobcats banged out three hits in the inning, but poor base running took them out of the inning.

Graceville regained the lead on an unearned run in the top of the fifth. 

It's doubtful that anyone could have predicted what was about to take place as Paxton came to the plate.

Tyler Garrett started things off with a single to left, and after that, Bradley Ball took over.

Brandon Garrett was safe on an error as he sacrificed Tyler Garrett to second and Dan Geoghagan followed with a bunt for a base hit to load the bases. Ryan Lewellen then walked, scoring Tyler Garrett to tie the game at 2-2. 

The Bobcats continued to execute flawlessly as Brandon Garrett scored on a squeeze play from Jesse Crawford. Geoghagan, Lewellen and Crawford all scored before the rally ended.

 "We felt if we got them in that situation we could be successful," Bradley said. "The opportunity just kind of fell for us. My hat‘s off to them, they are a good baseball team. But my kids gutted it out."

Graceville 100 010 0-2 8 3

Paxton       010 050 x-6 10 2

W- Colby Forehand. L- Taylor