Tigers' conference win streak now at 22

ARMOREL -- For three innings, the Bay Yellowjackets had the Armorel Tigers in an unfamiliar position Monday night -- trailing in a 1A-3 East matchup.

Bay was the last team to beat the Tigers in a conference game but that was in March, 2010. Monday night, the Tigers trailed, 3-1, in the bottom of the third before tying the game in the inning and putting four more runs on the board to pick up a 7-3 victory, their 22rd straight league win.

"We found a way to win it," said longtime Tiger head coach Charlie Brown. "It's always good to get a conference win but I think this was particularly good for our team. We haven't been behind in the conference this year. We showed ourselves that we can pick ourselves up and comeback after being down. It just brought us one step closer to our goal."

Armorel's Ashton Kennedy hustles from second to third Monday afternoon against Bay. The Tigers beat the Yellowjackets, 7-3, in 1A-3 East action.

Bay collected all three of its hits in the first three innings off of Armorel (10-12, 5-0 1A-5 East) starting pitcher Ty Wagganer, who had been nearly unhittable in four previous 1A-3 East starts.

"He (Wagganer) was overthrowing the ball in the first half," said Brown.

Bay put a run on the board in the first and two in the third thanks to a pair of two-out, two-strike singles.

Meanwhile, the Tigers put a run on the board in the first. With two outs, Wagganer got on thanks to a Bay miscue in the outfield and scored on a Jonathan Porter (2 hits and 3 RBIs) single to tie the game.

The Tigers tied the game in the third. Lead-off singles from Ryan Sullivan (one hit) and Ashton Kennedy (one hit) set the table for Wagganer (one hit and 2 RBI). Wagganer doubled down the third base line scoring Sullivan. Porter followed with his second RBI if the game. This time the junior catcher hit a sacrifice fly to short right field to score Kennedy and once again, tying the game.

Armorel broke the game open in the bottom of the fourth.

Kennedy walked with the bases loaded scoring Hunter Myers. Wagganer hit a sacrifice fly to center scoring LaVonta Smith and Porter picked up his third RBI of the game with a single scoring Sullivan to make it a 6-3 game.

Bradley Eubanks scored on a wild pitch in the fifth to bring the scoring to a close.

Meanwhile, Wagganer returned to form over the final four innings of the game. The junior hurler didn't give up a hit the rest of the way and struck out eight batters including a streak of six in a row over the fifth, sixth and seventh.

"He (Wagganer) tweaked his mechanics a little bit," said Brown. "He did a lot better job of pitching instead of throwing the ball the last few innings."

Wagganer allowed two earned runs on three hits while striking out 15 in seven complete innings to pick up his fourth consecutive conference win.

Wagganer has recorded 56 strikeouts in four league games.

Armorel takes on Ridgefield Christian Friday afternoon at Armorel.

The Tigers have three games left in the conference before beginning district tournament play. Tentatively, the 1A-3 East district tournament will begin on Friday, April 27 at Armorel and conclude on Saturday the 28.

afitzpatrick@blythevillecourier.com