Two one-run losses in the opening round of the MHSAA 1A baseball playoffs last week ended the season for French Camp Academy. Sacred Heart edged the Panthers 5-4 in eight innings, followed by a 7-6 decision.
“It was heartbreaking,” said coach Nathan Wright.
The opener was scoreless through five innings. After Sacred Heart scored one run in the top of the sixth, French Camp scored four times in the bottom of the inning on a hit batter and hits by Colin Perry, John Weeks, Clayton Leathers and Holman Edwards.
But three French Camp errors allowed Sacred Heart to tie the score in the seventh and the Crusaders pushed across a go ahead run in the eighth, French Camp had runners at first and third with one out in the bottom of the eighth, but an attempted double steal ended up with the potential tying run tagged out at the plate.
The second game at Sacred Heart was tied 6-6 entering the seventh. French Camp loaded the bases with one out in the top of the inning, but was unable to score. In the bottom half, Griffin Wiggins singled with the bases loaded and two outs for the walk off victory.
The Panthers finished 8-9 and took second in 5-1A with a 3-3 mark. Wright said it was the best hitting French Camp team ever, with a team batting average of .320 entering the Sacred Heart series. Weeks, Leathers, Perry and Edwards were the offensive leaders.
“At the end of the day, we were underachievers,” Wright said. “We should have done better than we did. We were fortunate to make the playoffs.”
The Panthers had only three seniors in the starting lineup – Weeks, Perry and Logan Burchfield. “We have a lot of young guys who had a chance to play this year,” Wright said.
