West Lauderdale beats Northeast Jones to capture Region 5-4A
Published 11:07 pm Friday, April 12, 2019
LAUREL — Another year, another division championship for West Lauderdale.
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Behind the pitching of Kameron Partridge and some timely hitting, the Knights were able to get past Northeast Jones 7-2 to claim the Region 5-4A district championship Friday night at Tiger Field.
West Lauderdale will face McComb, while Northeast Jones will face Raymond in the first round of the MHSAA Class 4A playoffs next Friday.
“I thought Kameron did an outstanding job tonight. He was able to locate his fast ball and throw his curve whenever he wanted to,” said West Lauderdale coach Jason Smith. “We had to battle tonight at the plate and it took us later in the game to get hits, but we did get hits when we needed.”
Partridge (4-0) tossed a complete game, scattering five hits, two runs, no walks and 13 strikeouts.
He also helped himself out at the plate with a RBI double in the seventh inning.
“Felt good tonight, my curve ball was working really well for me,” Partridge said. “Was able to utilize my fast ball on the plate and kept them off balanced.”
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The Knights (20-3, 10-0 Region 5-4A) never trailed.
Austin Davidson scored the games first run on a wild pitch.
Ben Ethridge had a RBI single to right and the Knights added another run in the third inning to take a 3-0 lead.
Northeast Jones answered with two runs in the bottom of third on a RBI double by Dayvis McLeod and a fielding error.
West Lauderdale would then score four runs in the top of the seventh to pull away highlighted by a two-run double by Mason Willis and RBI hits by Ethridge and Partridge.
“I was seeing off speed all night so I sit on that,” Ethridge said. “It’s fun seeing Kameron pitch, and with us as a duo pitching staff, we are hard to beat.”
Ethridge had two hits to lead the Knights offensively.
“Ben has been a great hitter for us batting clean up,” Smith said. “We need to continue to improve and play at a high level going into the playoffs.”
Dalton Tanner (4-1) took the loss on the mound for Northeast Jones (14-10, 8-2).