Lee Baseball Falls In Gulf South Conference Tournament

  • Monday, May 10, 2021
Landon Silver hit an inside-the-park home run in Monday’s loss to UWF.
Landon Silver hit an inside-the-park home run in Monday’s loss to UWF.
Lee's hopes of a Gulf South Conference tournament championship to add to its regular season title came to an end on Monday afternoon at the Choccolocco Park when the Flames were eliminated by West Florida. 

The final 10-7 score might be a bit deceiving since the Flames were trailing the Argonauts 9-3 when play was suspended on Sunday evening after only three innings.

It is not often teams take a lot of positives from a loss, but the Flames did just that. Said Coach Mark Brew, "I was really pleased with our effort today.
It would have been easy to play to the scoreboard at the start of the day, down 9-3, but our guys fought and played hard. Andrew Franklin was a big part of that giving us some huge innings allowing us to claw back into the game.

"It is a tough league and certainly a tough tournament, but those are types of games we would play in a regional. We have got to find a way to minimize those big innings moving forward. Our guys have proven to be resilient, and we are excited to see what the rest of post season holds." 

Behind the pitching of the lefty Franklin, Lee was able to slowly battle back into the contest. Over 4.1 innings, Franklin scattered five hits and allowed only one earned run. Senior Michael Hendricks came on to record the final two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning. 

The Flames (34-9) picked away at the West Florida lead. In the top of the fourth Landon Silver doubled and advanced to third on a ground out by Nate Bynum. He scored on an RBI ground out by Riley Black.  

In the sixth the margin was cut to 9-6 with two big runs. Silver stroked an inside the park homer to left field. Black walked and Thomas Zazzaro put down a bunt single. Dylan Standifer walked to load the bases and Alan Smith's fly out produced an RBI that scored Black. 

Lee created more excitement in the top of the eighth. Black reached on an Argo error. Smith walked. Ryan Beamish, Lee's homerun and RBI leader, stepped to the plate with a chance to tie the game but the threat ended on a pop-up to third.

West Florida added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth to increase the margin to 10-6. The Flames fought back again in the top of the ninth when Colton Yeager singled and Brandon Daniels was hit by a pitch. Both runners advanced on a ground out and Yeager scored on a wild pitch. 

Silver finished the game with three hits and two runs scored with his double and a homerun. Smith had a two-base hit and a one-base knock. He tallied a pair of RBI and crossed the dish once. Yeager added two hits and a run scored while Black had a homer before play was suspended on Sunday evening. The freshman catcher knocked in two runs and scored twice. Zazzaro, Standifer and Daniel also hit safely as the Flames collected 11 hits off five West Florida pitchers.

Alan Carter (5-2) was charged with the pitching loss. Ryan Brewer got credit for the Argo win while Brendon Cash worked the final 1.1 innings and was credited with the save. Cullan O'Shea was the West Florida run producer. He ripped a grand slam and scored three times. All totaled the Argos collected 13 hits. 

The Flames will wait to see who their South Regional opponent will be. The event will be hosted by the University of West Florida on May 27-30. 
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