Rotary, Farm Bureau take close wins

By Dustin Kent

Published: May 28, 2008

Rotary came up with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning Tuesday night to take a dramatic 3-2 victory over Elks in Dixie Majors action at Optimist Park.

Trailing 2-0 after 5 1/2 innings, Rotary came to bat with one last chance to win the game and Evan Wester gave his team a spark with a lead-off ground-rule double to start the inning.

Matthew Purvis then drew a walk off of Elks starter Jonathan Sikes, whose wild pitch on the fourth ball allowed Wester to reach third base.

Sikes, who was nearly unhittable through the first five innings, rebounded to strike out the next two Rotary batters, leaving runners on second and third with two out for Kody Bryan.

With the game on his shoulders, Bryan came up big for his club with a two-run double to left center field to score both runners and tie the game.

That brought Madison Harrell to the plate and Harrell hit a sharp ground ball to the shortstop, who was unable to get it to first base in time, which allowed Bryan to come home for the game-winning run.

It was the last game of the season until district play for Elks, while Rotary was scheduled to take on the Lions today at 5:30 p.m.

Harrell pitched the last two innings for Rotary to get the win Tuesday, giving up a run on two hits and striking out four, including the side in the top of the sixth.

Sikes took the hard-luck loss, pitching a complete game, giving up four hits and two walks, while striking out 12.

Elks got on the board first in the first inning when Sikes reached on a fielder’s choice, then came around to score later on a wild pitch.

The 1-0 lead held until the fifth inning when Elks added another run Gary Gilmore singled and came around to score on an RBI groundout by Lyle Phelps to make it 2-0.
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In the first game Tuesday night, Farm Bureau defeated Lions 3-2. 

Eric Perdue took the loss for Lions, giving up three runs on two walks and one hit batsman in 1/3 of an inning.

Walker Roberts pitched the final 4 2/3 innings in relief and gave up no runs on two hits and one walk, while striking out four. 

Reid Long pitched a complete game for Farm Bureau to get the win.

He surrendered only two runs on seven walks and two errors.