No baseball team in Limestone County has lost as few games as the Elkmont High Red Devils.

But of the Red Devils’ seven losses, head coach Matt Stockman can point to poor defense as the cause of at least five of them.

“That’s been our downfall,” Stockman said.

Friday that problem reared its head again and knocked the Red Devils out of playoff contention in Class 3A.

Elkmont committed five errors, three in a four-run fourth inning for West Morgan, and lost to the Rebels 7-6.

The Red Devils (18-7 overall) fell to 3-4 in Class 3A, Area 15 — two games behind West Morgan (13-11, 5-2) for second in the area standings with one area game left to play.

Elkmont out hit West Morgan 10-6, but the Rebels had just two defensive miscues.

Joseph Mitchell and Ryan Woods hit back-to-back home run in the first inning to give Elkmont a 3-1 lead, and Bobby Burton’s RBI-single made it 4-1 in the second.

But the Rebels went ahead 6-4 with four unearned runs in the fourth.

Elkmont got back even on a run-scoring single by Steven Laye and Burton’s ground out in the bottom of the fourth

But the only walk of the game, issued by Woods to Josh Gentry leading off the seventh proved to be the game-winning run when Tyler Jones singled him in with one out.

Woods gave up a lead-off home run to Josh McAbee to start the game followed by a RBI double by Gentry.

He allowed just four singles the rest of the way, striking out seven.

“He pitched a great game,” Stockman said. “That was his best game ever for walks.”

West Morgan starter Anthony Atemon allowed nine hits and six runs through four innings, but after Matt Vaughan led off the fifth with a single for Elkmont, the Red Devils never got another hit.



Thursday’s Game

Elkmont 18, Randolph 8

The Red Devils kept alive their Class 3A playoffs hopes with another one-sided win over Randolph.

Elkmont led just 10-8 after 4 1/2 innings, but added eight runs in their final two at-bats.

Mitchell had a double and a triple and stole two bases. Vaughn and Tom Logan each drove in three runs with two hits. Vaughn had a double.