Malone, Graceville fall in first round

By Dustin Kent

Published: April 29, 2008

Only one Jackson County baseball team remains, as both the Malone and Graceville Tigers suffered first-round defeats Tuesday night in the 1A state playoffs.

Malone fell at home 7-5 to Laurel Hill, while Graceville was tripped up 6-2 by the Paxton Bobcats in Paxton.

Marianna was the only Jackson County team to advance.

Both Malone and Graceville suffered late-inning heartbreaks in defeat.

Malone nearly completed a remarkable comeback, rallying from a 7-0 deficit with a run in the fifth and four in the sixth.

However, with the bases loaded and just one out for Malone in the sixth, back-to-back strikeouts doomed the Tiger rally.

Malone went down in order in the bottom of the seventh.

Graceville was tied with Paxton going into the bottom of the fifth inning before starting pitcher Josh Taylor allowed Paxton to load the bases with none out.

Cody Gainer came on in relief for the Tigers but the Bobcats pushed four runs across the plate to take control of the game.

A pair of squeeze bunts put Paxton up 4-2 before a two-run single made it a four-run game.

“We just had a terrible inning,” Graceville coach Mike Carter said of the fifth. “Paxton small-balled us pretty well.

“Paxton is a good team, very sound defensively and very well-coached.”

Graceville finished the season 13-15.

For Malone, it was a bitter pill to swallow after winning the district title for the second straight year and hosting a playoff game.

But a tough first inning for starter Aaron Conrad and a slew of defensive mistakes proved too difficult to overcome.

Laurel Hill put up four runs in the first inning, three more in the fourth, with four of the seven runs coming off of Malone errors.

“I don’t know if we were tight, but (Laurel Hill) hit the ball in the first inning,” Malone coach Max Harkrider said. “Conrad struggled throwing the breaking pitch early, pitched well in the second and third, but then we kicked a few in the fourth.

“That’s why you line up and play. They were better than us last night. They made the plays and we couldn’t get the big hit when we needed it.”

Malone put itself in a position to win in the sixth with Blake Henson leading off with a ground-rule double, followed by an RBI single from Jeffrey Pittman to make it 7-2.

Dayvon Larry and Justin Bryan walked to load the bases and another walk to Kevin Warren brought a run to the plate to make it 7-3.

Larry scored on a passed ball to trim the lead to three runs, then two more walks brought another run to the plate to make it 7-5.

Derek Orshall and Henson then came to the plate in consecutive at-bats with a chance to tie the game or give the Tigers the lead, but both went down on strikeouts to end the inning.

Still, Harkrider said it was a valiant effort by his club.

“I’m proud of the comeback,” the coach said. “We could’ve laid down there when it was 7-0, but we fought them and just came up short.

“We had our chances, but we just didn’t get that key hit. We had them on their heels. It just didn’t work out for us.”

Malone finished the season at 14-8, though Harkrider said he hoped the last loss didn’t take away from the entire season.

“I’m proud of them, obviously. This group of seniors won back-to-back district titles, which we hadn’t done in a long time,” Harkrider said. “We went through a stretch where we lost four of six going into the district tourney and we could’ve quit right then, but they showed a little fight in them, came back and won the title.

“It’s unfortunate for it to end this way, but I don’t want to remember this season for that game.”