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The Wilcox County High School baseball team had their season come to an end in the second round of the GHSA class A state playoffs after a best-of-three series loss at Seminole County.

The Patriots fell to Seminole by a final score of 13-2 in the first contest on Thursday, but Wilcox took a walk-off win in the ninth inning of the second contest by a 5-4 score line to force the third game. Seminole then took a 7-3 win over the Patriots in game three on Friday to eliminate Wilcox from the playoffs.

Seminole 13, Patriots 2 

Wilcox opened the scoring in game one with a pair of runs in the top half of the first inning on a two-run double off the bat of Rhett Davis that scored Brock White and Branson Owens.

Seminole answered with a three-run bottom half of the first to take a 3-2 lead, and from there the hosts tacked on 10 more runs, with eight of those coming in the bottom of the fourth, to take a run-rule shortened 13-2 win after just five innings played.

Patriots 5, Seminole 4 

Wilcox again got out to an early 2-0 lead in the second game of the day with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first frame. Back-to-back one-out singles by White and Owens gave the Patriots an early run-scoring situation, and Davis subsequently drove in the first run of the contest with a sacrifice fly that scored White. An RBI single from Clark Gaines later on in the inning allowed Owens to score the second run.

Seminole used a two-run home run off the bat of Ashton Childree in the top of the second to tie the score at 2-2, and that would be where the score stayed until extra innings.

Seminole went on to take a 4-2 lead with a two-run single in the top half of the eighth inning, but the Patriots fought their way back with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the eighth frame.

A leadoff single from Cameron Patterson, followed by a one-out walk by Owens started a rally for Wilcox, and both base runners ended up scoring on a Seminole error with two outs in the inning after Gaines had put the ball in play on the infield.

After Gaines pitched a scoreless top half of the ninth frame, the Patriots pushed across a run in the bottom half for the walk off win to stay alive in the series. Lagan Luke drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the ninth, and consecutive singles from Bo Keene and Cameron Coleman brought Patterson up to bat with the bases loaded and no outs. Patterson then hit into a fielder’s choice groundout that allowed Luke to score for the 5-4 Wilcox win.

Owens pitched seven innings for the Patriots in the contest and allowed just two runs on six hits and four walks while accumulating nine strikeouts. Gaines took over on the mound for Wilcox in the extra frames and picked up the win after pitching two innings and allowing two runs on three hits.

Davis finished game two with a pair of hits and an RBI to lead the Wilcox batting lineup, while Owens had one hit, one walk, and two runs scored. Patterson, White, and Luke each recorded one hit and scored a run in the game.

Seminole 7, Patriots 3

Wilcox fell behind 2-0 in the top of the second inning of game three but they tied the score up with a pair of runs of their own during the bottom of the third frame.

Owens knocked in the two third-inning runs with an RBI single that scored Patterson and White.

Seminole went on to score four runs in the top half of the fifth, and one in the top of the sixth to take a 7-2 lead.

Wilcox cut the lead to 7-3 shortly after with a run in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI single by Gaines that scored Owens, but Seminole held off the Patriots from there to hang on for the series win.

Owens led the Patriot batting order in game three with two hits, two RBIs, and one run scored. White, Gaines, and Coleman each accounted for one Wilcox hit in the contest.

The second round playoff series defeat left the Patriots with an overall record of 12-13 at the end of their hard-fought 2019 campaign.