DEMOREST, Ga. - LaGrange continued to roll, beating Piedmont 11-1 on Friday night at Loudermilk Field. The Panthers (18-7, 10-1 USA South) won their 10th straight game. Piedmont slipped to 20-12 and 7-4 in conference play.
LC clinched the top seed for next weekend's USA South West Division Tournament. The Panthers will meet either the Lions or Brevard in the best-of-three series at Cleaveland Field in Williamson Stadium. The series schedule has not been released.
Joe Ruth had four hits, including two doubles, scored three runs, and had three RBIs to lead LC's 11-hit attack. With the 11 runs, the Panthers scored in double figures for the sixth time in the last seven games.
Baley Coleman (6-3) outdueled Piedmont ace Sam Carpenter (8-3). Coleman went 6-2/3 innings to pick up the win. He allowed the one run, scattered five hits, walked three, and struck out eight. Spencer Douches got the final out in the seventh and threw a scoreless eighth inning. Tyler Brooks worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth to close out the game.
The Panthers took a 3-1 lead into the eighth. Ruth led off the inning with a ground-rule double. He came around to score as E.J. Churchich reached on an error. Back-to-back walks to McKinley Erves and Jack Layrisson loaded the bases and ended Carpenter's night. Carpenter was charged with seven runs, five of those earned, in 7-1/3 innings.
Reliever Justin Manus walked Trey Pearce to force in Churchich with the second run of the inning. David Smigelski and Rhett Hebert delivered back-to-back RBI singles to up the score to 7-1. Ruth, batting for the second time in the inning, singled to drive in two more runs. Cael Chatham capped the inning with a two-run double, padding the Panthers' lead to 11-1. The hit extended Chatham's hitting streak to 17 games.
Rhett Mixon led off the game with a single and moved over to third on a double by Ruth. One out later, Mixon scored the game's first run and Ruth went to third as Churchich flied out to right. Erves drove in Ruth with a two-out single for a 2-0 lead.
Piedmont came back with a run in its half of the first inning to make it 2-1.
LC added an unearned run in the third to make it a two-run game again. Ruth's two-out base hit drove in Hebert from second to make it 3-1.
The two teams close out the regular season with a doubleheader Saturday, starting at 2 p.m.
