FAIRVIEW – Three runs in the first inning was enough for the Fairview pitching staff to work with Wednesday afternoon and eliminate Good Hope 4-1 in the Cullman County High School Baseball Tournament.
The Aggies placed three doubles into the gaps in the first that led to the early advantage. Ragan Ashley, Braden Grandstaff and Clay Lanier delivered when needed against Good Hope left-hander Deven Gowens.
That set the tone for the Aggies' pitching staff. Truman Boyd worked a scoreless first inning, then gave the ball to Derek Jones who was effective until he encountered a Good Hope threat in the Raiders' half of the fourth.
Grandstaff was called in to kill the momentum, which he did with a strikeout of Gowens with the bases loaded to end the inning.
After allowing three runs in the first, Gowens stood his ground and shut down Fairview for the next four innings. Payton Allred dropped the third out on a rundown in the sixth, trying to get Lanier who was moving toward third on a grounder hit to short.
That allowed the Aggies to get a run off the mistake one batter later and ran their lead to 4-0.
But Fairview encountered an error in running the bases on a double by Tyler Ball that resulted in a rundown at second with no more runs scoring.
Grandstaff hit Warren Creel to lead off the Good Hope sixth. Creel advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored when Tyler Eakes' grounder at short was not properly handled, resulting in an error. Grandstaff then struck out Allred to end the inning. Matt Hancock was issued a walk by Grandstaff with one out in the seventh.
The Fairview reliever regrouped by getting Jon Calvert to ground to short and Houston White to line to Ball at first to end the game.
Boyd, Jones and Grandstaff held Good Hope to two hits and combined for seven strikeouts with four walks. Grandstaff was solid with three and a third innings of no-hit relief and four batters sent down by strikeouts.
Fairview had five doubles in the win with Ball, Ashley, Grandstaff, Lanier and Preston Moore accounting for one each.
The Aggies now move on to the championship round to face the West Point Warriors. The title game has been moved up to 1 p.m. Thursday to beat possible rain that is expected for the area by nighttime.
An if-needed contest between the two rivals would be played at 3 p.m.
