Tiger season comes to a close

The Macon County Tiger baseball season came to a close in the District 7-3A tournament this past week. The Tigers went out fighting.

In the double elimination tournament Macon was due to face Stone Memorial in the loser’s bracket on Monday May 8th. The Tigers jumped out to an 8-2 lead after five and removed their starting pitcher. Macon was able to make that change work and won 8-2 in seven innings.

Jacob Hunt started the game and threw about 69 pitches in five innings, allowing only two hits and one run. Braxton Lloyd came on in relief for two innings and allowed only one hit while striking out eight. Ely Malo, Hayden Dean, and Braylon Flowers all collected multiple hits and scored runs. Jordan Rogers and Hayes Polston also had one hit each. Tyler Gregory and Nate Green scored runs.

Now the Tigers had to turn right around and face Livingston for chance to go to region and the 7-3A finals. With the pitch count rule for high school in place, Hunt still had about 51 pitches he could throw in the second game. He started the game and masterfully got the Tigers through four innings. His offense staked him to a 6-0 lead after four innings. Everything was going the Tigers way and it looked like they would get their first win over the Wildcats in four tries.

Then the Tigers hit a wall.

When Hunt came out I the bottom of the fifth, Livingston woke up. They plated eight runs and took the lead 8-6. The Tigers battled back and led 9-8 heading into the final three outs of the game. However Livingston was able to do just enough to push across two more runs and win 10-9. It was a heck of a game.

Hunt again started the game and went four innings, allowing only two hits, no runs, and striking out eight of thirteen batters he faced. Macon used Lloyd, Malo, and Connor to get through the final three innings with Connor taking the loss. Polston, Lloyd, Rogers, Matthew Wheeley, and Nate Green all collected hits. Malo, Polston, Wheeley, Green, Rogers(2), Lloyd(2), and Flowers scored the nine runs.

With the loss the Tiger season comes to an end, finishing with an overall record of 17-12.