Wallace-Selma falls to Lurleen B. Wallace in doubleheader

Published 9:38 pm Thursday, March 9, 2017

Lurleen B. Wallace took two games from Wallace Community College Selma Thursday in the Alabama Community College Conference opener for both schools.

Lurleen won the first game 5-4 after a double by Jake Stamps scored Chauncey Callier and Tyler Sharp in the top of the fifth inning. Wallace-Selma had a chance to rally, but the Patriots couldn’t bring home any of the three base runners they had on during the final three innings.

Lurleen also took the second game of the day 10-4.

Email newsletter signup

“We had our opportunities,” said Wallace Community College Selma coach Frank Elliott, after the first game. “There’s no doubt, we had our opportunities.”

In the opening game, Wallace-Selma took a quick 2-0 lead. After Wallace-Selma pitcher Colin Lillie got out of a jam in the top of the first, Chandler Mullins led off the bottom of the inning with a single to left field. Mullins went 4-for-4 in the first game, had an RBI and scored two runs.

Ryan Harbin’s single to left field scored Quintarrious Arrington, putting Wallace-Selma up 2-0.

Lurleen closed the gap to one on a sacrifice fly that scored Callier in the top of the second.

Wallace-Selma added two more runs in the bottom of the second. Mullins and Hunter Roberts hit RBI singles that made the score 4-1 Patriots and forced Lurleen to pull starting pitcher Garrett Hollinghead, who forced only four outs.

Lurleen cut into the lead with two runs in the top of the third. Matthew Jones’ single scored Gunner Hendrix, who had led off the inning with a walk and Callier’s single brought Matthew Christian home.

Elliott stuck with starting Lillie, who settled down after a rough start. Lillie had eight strikeouts before leaving the game in the top of the fifth after surrendering a triple to Callier.

“Bases on balls was his Achilles heel,” Elliott said of Callier. “Without those, we probably win. As we stated the other day, we kind of

Kyle Friday pitched the final three innings, but couldn’t get the Patriots out of a tough situation in the fifth.

After walking Sharp, Stamps’ double scored two runs and put Lurleen up one.

Wallace had several chances to answer, none more likely than the seventh after a leadoff single by Roberts.

Lurleen’s Frazier Shoults shut the door, forcing the final three Patriots’ to ground out to close out the game.

“Every game from here on is a fight and you’ve got to get tough and make it happen,” Elliott said. “If something doesn’t work or doesn’t go our way, we have to get over it quickly and we have to make the adjustment.”