By Robert Morgan | Published Sunday, April 26, 2009
The Paradise High School baseball team has used good defense and a balanced offense to win seven of its last eight games. Neither of those strengths were revealed in a make-up game Monday against Millsap.
The Panthers coughed up three errors and managed just seven hits as they never could shake the Bulldogs. However, they got their biggest hit in the final inning and that served as the game winner in a 7-6 home victory.
With the game knotted at 6-6 with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, Caleb Read crushed a triple to the wall.
Nick Pike managed just one base hit in the game but made his crack at the bat count as he knocked in Caleb Read for the winning run to end the game.
"This was a huge win for the Panthers," said PHS coach Scott Broussard. "The boys overcame a lot of adversity through the game and came away with a win."
The win allowed Paradise to hang on to second place in district 9-2A behind Brock at 9-2 and 15-8 overall.
Paradise managed only five hits in the first five innings of the game but made use of timely walks and three errors by Millsap to score in each of the first four innings.
The locals took a 1-0 lead after one inning, but the Bulldogs followed with a pair of unearned runs in the second inning to take a 2-1 lead.
The Panthers scored a solo run in the bottom half of the second inning to tie the game at 2-2. They added two runs in the third and fourth innings to take their biggest lead of the game at 6-2.
Caleb Read had a lot to do with it as he smashed a pair of RBI doubles to lead the scoring. Kaleb Read and Pike also had doubles to keep the bases warm in the third and fourth innings.
P.J. Fuller and Kevin Jackson also smacked singles in the early going.
Millsap took advantage of some late miscues to make things interesting with solo runs in the fifth and sixth innings to make it a 6-4 contest.
The Bulldogs added two more runs in the top of the seventh inning to tie the game at 6-6 and set up the dramatic finish.
Kaleb Read picked up the win on the mound where he struck out 11 batters in seven innings of work.
Paradise did not have any trouble defeating Chico last week. The group used 20 hits and 12 Dragon errors en route to a 33-0 win.
Caleb Read, who had three doubles, had the biggest day as he went six for seven at the plate with four RBI, and he scored all six times on base.
Ryan Smart finished with five hits, one of which was a home run, and knocked in four runs. Kevin Jackson also had two doubles, while Kaleb Read and Taylor Castleberry had one each.
