Although the Reeltown baseball team picked up losses to Valley and Elmore County last week, it gained some momentum with a win over Fayetteville in the last regular season game.
First up was a 4-3 loss to Valley on Friday, where the Rams’ early success proved to be beneficial. Valley had a two-run lead after one frame, but the Rebels responded with three runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Even so, the Rams also added runs in the fifth — holding onto that lead until the end.
Reeltown logged three hits on the night coming from Reed Wood, JaMarkius Smith and Hagan Lewis. On the inverse, Valley racked up 10 hits on pitchers Wood and Brody Smith, who only cataloged three strikeouts on the day.
Next up was a high-scoring affair against Elmore County, where Reeltown fell 12-7.
This game, the Rebels saw an uptick in the hits category with seven total on the day — Hutson Lewis, Smith and Slade Carleton each picking up two. However, it was early success from the opposition that proved costly.
The Panthers sat on an eight-run lead before the Rebels notched their first score of the day. Even while the Rebels were gaining some momentum in the third and fourth frames, scoring four runs, the Panthers responded by scoring seven more runs in the final two frames.
Against Fayetteville, Reeltown capitalized on an early lead of its own to pull away with a 6-5 win in the final regular season game.
Wood had a perfect day at the play, going 3-for-3 in his at-bats while adding three runs to the board. The Rebels also saw two players go the distance with JaMarkius Smith hitting a home run in the bottom of the first and Branton Spraggings picking up one of his own in the bottom of the fifth.
Hagan Lewis and Carleton each added a hit to round out the Rebels’ total to nine on the day.
Brody Smith and Spraggins each got some reps on the mound, surrendering five hits and five runs while striking out five batters and walking three.
Reeltown is still in the playoffs after capturing its fifth consecutive area title last week. In the first round of the AHSAA Class 2A baseball playoffs, Reeltown will host Isabella on Friday for a doubleheader.
Rebels held scoreless against Buelah, responded big against Valley
The errors mounted up for the Reeltown softball team in its game against Beulah last week.
There was not a major discrepancy in the hitting category, the Tigers only finished with one more hit than the Rebels. But where the two teams differed were in errors; Reeltown ended with four while Beulah ended with none.
Lilli Johnston, Kellie Whitlow, Lainey Patillo, Maddie Stockdale and Blair Johnston accounted for the five hits that Reeltown had.
Crisdan Dunn and Caroline Sutherlin split duties in the circle with three innings each. Dunn allowed four hits and three runs while Sutherlin allowed two hits and one run while picking up three strikeouts.
The Rebels took being held scoreless to heart and voiced their frustrations against Valley — to the tune of 21 total hits in the 12-5 win.
Three Reeltown batters ended with four hits on the night; Sutherline, Dunn and Whitlow. In addition two more batters finished with three hits to their totals in Chappell and Patillo. All five of whom scored at least one run on the day — Sutherline taking the highest rank with four runs.
Reeltown has two more games until the end of the season and the start of the area tournament against Handley and Valley, both on the road. However, Reeltown sits comfortably atop of Class 2A Area 6 with a perfect 4-0 record.