Midland Classical Advances to Division IV Championship With 8-3 Win

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											R	H	E
Midland Classical	5	1	1		1	0	0		0	–	8	8	2
Harvest Christian	0	0	1		1	0	0		1	–	3	5	3

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The Midland Classical Academy Knights jumped out with 5 runs in the 1st inning and never looked back on their way to an 8-3 victory over Harvest Christian Academy in the first TAPPS Division IV Semifinal game. With the win, Midland Classical advances to the Championship Game to face the winner of the Hill Country Christian/Rosehill Christian matchup.

Charles McMillan and Reagan Layh opened the game for the Knights by drawing bases on balls. A fly out to centerfield by Cort Miller advanced the runners. 3B Josh Patterson came to the plate and with a 2-1 count, laced a line drive to the gap in right-center, scoring both McMillan and Layh.

“I was expecting a slow off-speed pitch but he threw me a meatball,” Patterson explained. “I thought I was going to pull it but when i looked up I saw it going into the gap between right and center. It scored the two runs and it got the dugout humping and everyone jumping. We ended up getting 3 hits and scoring 5 runs. It was perfect.”

Nathan Swallow and Gabriel Beattie also got RBI singles in the inning giving Midland Classical an early 5-0 lead. The Knights also scored a run in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings including an RBI single by Patterson in the 4th.

Meanwhile, winning pitcher Cort Miller was busy keeping the Harvest Christian offense in check. Miller got out of jams in the 1st and 2nd innings before giving up an unearned run in the third. He gave up one more run in the 4th and had to leave in the 6th due to the pitch count limit. He went 5.1 innings giving up 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned with 5 Ks and 4 BB.

The Knights then gave the ball to Patterson to finish the game. Patterson got out of the 6th and got into trouble in the 7th. With one run scored and the bases loaded, Patterson struck out the last two batters to end the game.

Patterson was 2-4 at the plate with 3 RBIs. He pitched 1.2 innings giving up one run on 1 hit with 3 Ks. For his performance, Patterson was named the THSB Player of the Game.