Macon-East senior Luke Noffsinger searched for the right words to describe his feelings after Tuesday’s 9-0 and 9-1 sweep of Patrician Academy in the AISA Class AA championship series at Paterson Field in Montgomery.
“I’m on top of the world right now. I’m so thankful the Lord gave me the opportunity to be on this team and compete with this group of guys,” Noffsinger said. “We’ve tried to take a selfless approach to the game this year. Our mentality has been to just get on base. If we can get on base, we have confidence the guys behind us can find a way to generate runs.”
The approach worked on Tuesday as the Knights (35-5) captured their first championship since 2018. Macon-East put together six hits in each game and reached base on 13 walks. Macon-East batters also were hit by pitches 8 times.
Noffsinger and Camden Bell each had two hits in the first game, with Noffsinger going 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run and Bell finishing 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run.
Junior Matthew Kitchens (10-0) earned the complete-game win.
“I grew up (around this program) and I watched my brother win a championship here,” Kitchens said. “Now, to win a championship with this group and to help our senior go out with a title, that means a lot.”
Kitchens gave up two hits in the first inning but only allowed one hit the remainder of the game. He struck out five and walked two. In Game 2, Bryant Rascoll earned the win in 5.1 innings, striking out four, walking one, hitting one batter and allowing eight hits. Kitchens earned the save in 1.2 innings, striking out three.
Rascoll drove in two runs for the Knights in the second game, Thad McKinney scored three runs, Jabe Boroff scored two runs and Gunner Justice had three hits.
CLASS A
Jackson Academy 4-4, Abbeville 3-7
Tuesday’s AISA Class A baseball championship series played out a lot like Jackson Academy coach Jacob Webb expected.
Jackson took the first game 4-3 in 10 innings before Abbeville Christian won the second game 7-4 to force a deciding Game 3 on Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Paterson Field.
“This is a great high school baseball series. Game 1 was a great game and (Game 2) was a great game until the end. This is what we expected,” Webb said. “This is the first time we’ve played each other this season, but before the series I had several opposing coaches tell me they thought it was a series that could go either way and would probably go three games. Abbeville has a good team and so do we. We’ll see what happens (on Wednesday).”
Jackson escaped with the win in Game 1 when Dawson Martin scored on a passed ball in the bottom of the 10th inning. Abbeville Christian bounced back in Game 2, taking a 5-4 lead in the second inning and adding insurance runs in the fourth and sixth innings.
“It took a lot of mental toughness after a heartbreaking loss in Game 1,” Abbeville Christian coach C.J. Upshaw said. “You have to give credit to our guys, they battled and fought. They had the mentality that they didn’t want to lose and we came out victorious in the second game.”
Jackson’s Colton Sullivan picked up the win in relief of Martin in Game 1 and Nathan James took the loss in Game 2. For Abbeville Christian, Connor Hutto took the loss in relief of Cole Goodson in Game 1 and Justin Murphy earned the win in Game 2.
Jackson Academy’s Sullivan was 5-for-8 in the two games with four RBIs and two runs.
In Game 1, James had two hits and one RBI and Dawson Martin had two hits and a run.
Murphy and Goodson each had one RBI for Abbeville Christian in the first game and Hutto, Brandon Early and Hunter Odom each scored one run.
In Game 2, Abbeville Christian’s Early was 2-for-3 with two RBIs, Hutto had two hits and a run, Murphy had two RBIs and a run and Titus McCreight had two hits and two runs. Zach Barr had two hits and two runs for Jackson in Game 2 and Dayton Martin had two hits and one run.
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