By By Austin Bishop / EMG regional sports
March 28, 2004
COLLINSVILLE Just when things were on the verge of getting out of hand for West Lauderdale pitcher Parker Temple on Saturday night, he decided to take things into his hands.
Quitman took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning and had a runner on third with no outs, but Temple struck out the next three batters and the Knights rallied for a 9-1 win.
But he ended up just fine.
The right-hander held the 9-9 Panthers to just one hit over six innings of work, while striking out nine and walking four.
Another key point of the game came in the third inning.
With West Lauderdale, now 18-2 for the season, leading 3-1, Quitman threatened to cut into the lead with Josh Lafferty on second base and two outs. Clean-up hitter Daniel Boyd hit a curling line drive into right-center, but WL right fielder Drew Snider tracked it down for the final out of the inning.
Snider's heroics didn't stop there. He led off the bottom of the inning with a homer over the center field wall to put the Knights up 4-1.
Quitman, which beat Southeast Lauderdale 13-4 earlier in the day, took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Jaymie Smith walked and later scored on a double by Terrence Lafferty. Pinch runner Randy Carter then moved to third, before Temple stepped up to fan the next three hitters.
WL then struck for three runs in the bottom of the inning, with Paxton Pace and Caleb Dulaney drawing bases-loaded walks to force in the first two runs and Temple scoring on a wild pitch for the third.
After Snider's homer made it 4-1 in the third, Jay Warren ripped a one-out triple and Tyler Vick drove him in with a sacrifice fly to left to make it 5-1.
Austin Davis' RBI single in the fifth, was followed by a run-scoring double off the bat of Temple.
The Knights tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the sixth when Dulaney led off with a double and Bo Davis followed with a two-run homer to center.
Snider, Warren and Temple had two hits each for the Knights.
West Lauderdale hosts Division 5-3A foe Morton on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and visit Newton County on Friday. The Knights then travel to Louisville for a 1 p.m. game on Saturday, before hosting Meridian at 7 p.m. the same day.