By Ryan Davenport, WSON Sports Correspondent 

The Henderson County Colonels faced off against the Union County Braves in the 6th District Tournament Championship Game in Henderson.

The Colonels would strike first in the bottom of the 1st inning with a RBI single from junior designated hitter Paxton Gardner and a 3 RBI double by senior left fielder Tim Wolfe to give the Colonels a 4-0 lead over the Braves heading into the top of the 2nd inning.

The Colonels would score on a 1 out groundout in the bottom of the 2nd to give them a 5-0 lead heading into the top of the 3rd.

In the bottom of the 4th inning, the Colonels junior designated hitter Paxton Gardner would hit a 2 RBI single to give the Colonels a 7-0 lead over the Braves heading into the top of the 5th inning. 

The Braves would get on the board late in the top of the 7th inning scoring on an error made by Alec Satterfield as the Braves would still trail the Colonels 7-1. The Braves wouldn;t score again and the Colonels would come away with a 7-1 victory to win the 6th District Championship. The Colonels improve to (15-17) on the season while the Braves fall to (10-19).

4 Colonels were named to the All-District team. Dru Meadows, Dax Wilson, Brennan Cates, and Alec Satterfield all in the photo above.

Colonel’s junior designated hitter Paxton Gardner was 3 for 3 with 3 RBI’s and 2 stolen bases on the night. Senior pitcher Dru Meadows went 5 innings only allowing 3 hits and 0 runs while walking 0 batters and recording 6 strikeouts on the night. 

As a team, the Colonels scored 7 runs and recorded 7 hits, 7 RBI’s, 2 doubles, 1 error, and 5 stolen bases on the night.

 

The Braves sophomore right fielder Korben Lucas was 2 for 4 with a double and 1 RBI on the night. As a team, the Braves recorded 6 hits, 1 RBI, 1 error, and 3 doubles on the night.

 

Player of the game for the Colonels was junior designated hitter Paxton Gardner. I asked Paxton how he felt like he performed in the game and how his team played and he responded with this, “I felt like as a team we’re doing really well right now. We’ve been putting a lot of work in the cages and just working on the field and just putting it all together. I think we feel great and playing district at home gave us a lot of energy and I think we’re going to keep that and let it build up to the postseason.”

 

Henderson County Colonels head coach Adam Hines talked about his team’s performance on the night, “I thought they played well. One thing that helped us was Dru (Meadows) threw well early but the offense took some pressure off of us and making pitching decisions which really helped going into the region (tournament) (on) Saturday. We were leary of pitch counts and things like that and for our guys to get up early, play some good defense, and put us at ease a little bit and give us a little breathing room that was big for us tonight. So good pitching, good timely hitting early, and then obviously good defense.”

 

Union County Braves head coach Chad Robinson talked about his observations on his team’s loss the night, “We didn’t hit very good in key situations. I think we had 12 (or) 15 base runners tonight, scored 1 run, just didn’t do a very good job of hitting when it counted. Our pitchers weren’t real sharp early in the game neither, that kind of let us down.”

 

The Colonels will await who they draw in the 2nd Region Tournament on Thursday morning, May 18th. The 2nd Region Tournament will be played on Henderson’s home field.

 

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