A pitchers’ duel went the way of the Union County High School baseball team, which defeated fourth seed Cottondale 2-0 in a May 13 Rural Class state semifinal game.
The top seed Tigers (23-7) will play either second seed Trenton (22-5) or third seed Holmes County (16-15) for the championship on Thursday, May 14, at Fort Myers’ Hammond Stadium (Lee Health Sports Complex).
Trenton and Holmes County are scheduled to play each other at 1 p.m. on May 13.
It was a battle between Union’s Erick Lasseter and Cottondale’s and Lane Johnson in the day’s first semifinal game, with each pitcher going the distance. Lasseter and Johnson allowed three and two hits, respectively, but the Tigers took advantage of two walks in the second inning.
Lasseter gave up no walks, with 53 of his 70 pitches being strikes.
The Tigers’ winning pitcher was the leadoff batter in the bottom of the second. He took four straight balls to get on base. With courtesy runner Tristan George taking Lasseter’s place on base, batter Evan Christmas fell behind 0-2 in the count before working it full and eventually drawing a walk. Jasen Sullivan advanced both runners on a sacrifice bunt before Mason Moore drove the first pitch he saw into left field for a two-run single.
Moore finished with both of his team’s hits in two at-bats.
The two runs proved to be enough for Lasseter, who improved his record to 6-2.
Cottondale (18-12) put one baserunner on in each of the first four innings, but in three of those innings the Hornets already had two outs. Trace Pelfrey did reach with just one out in the second when he was hit by a pitch, but he was caught attempting to steal second by catcher Moore.
The Hornets went three up and three down in the fifth and sixth innings, but got a single from Tyler Jones to lead off the seventh. Union then turned a double play, which began with Lasseter catching a line drive off the bat of Alex Bellamy. Pelfrey then ground out to first baseman Kendall Carter to end the game.
