Rams advance to title series

Published 12:11 am Wednesday, April 30, 2008

WOODVILLE — The WCCA Rams are only two wins away from a South State championship.

The Rams made sure of that with a 12-5 win over Benton Academy in Game 2 of the MPSA Class A South State semifinal series, winning the series two games to none.

The Rams took advantage of eight Benton errors and a good pitching performance from winning pitcher Sutton Olive to take the victory.

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“Sutton pitched a good, complete-game victory for us,” WCCA coach Ray Olive said. “The guys did their job at the plate. It was a good team effort.”

WCCA struck early, scoring four runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a quick 4-0 lead.

Two of the runs scored on suicide squeezes and Lane McCarty drove home the other two with a double.

“We set the tone early in the game with that four-run second inning,” Olive said. “Those four runs were big for momentum.”

Benton tried to come back, scoring two runs in the next inning, but WCCA put the game away for good with two runs in the fifth and five runs in the sixth.

“In the sixth inning, their errors and walks got to them,” Olive said. “We kept our composure and played through the entire game.”

WCCA’s hitting heroes were Brandon Simon, Cory Havard along with McCarty.

Simon was 2-for-4 with a double and a triple while Havard was 2-for-4 with a double.

The Rams, now 23-10 on the season, will face either Heidelberg Academy or Porter’s Chapel in a three-game series for the South State title.

“We’re thrilled to be playing in the South State Championship series,” Olive said. “We expect some still competition. It’s good that we wrapped up our series tonight. It will give us six or seven days rest and we’ll be able to work on some things to prepare for next week.”