After falling behind early, the Straughn Tigers battled back to take a late lead before falling 4-2 to the Headland Rams in the regular season Class 4A Area 2 championship game in Straughn on Thursday night.

 

It didn’t take the Rams long to get on the scoreboard after a few hits in the top of the first gave them an early 2-0 advantage.

 

In the top of the second, the Tigers cut into the lead when Riley Eiland laced a single into left field that went under the glove of the left fielder and roll to the fence. Matt Worley came around to score from first, and Eiland raced around to third off the error.

 

One batter later, Hank Peeples knotted the game up 2-2 with a run scoring single to right field.

 

After giving up two runs in the first inning, Barrett Bush settled in and kept the Rams off the scoreboard for the next five innings.

 

Brock Hammett led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a single, but Ethan Wilson hit a screaming line drive that was snagged by the Rams’ shortstop, who then threw Hammett out trying to scramble back to first.

 

With two outs and the bases now empty, Shane Jones crushed a home run over the left field fence to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead.

 

The Rams got a leadoff double in the top of the sixth, and picked a two-out, two-run single to take a 4-3 lead.

 

The Rams’ final run came on a bases loaded walk in the top of the seventh, and the Tigers were unable to get anything going in the bottom of the final inning.

 

“We played good enough to win,” Tigers’ head coach Jim Bedsole said. “We missed some chances on the base paths, like that solo home run should have been a two-run home run. We have been hitting the ball the best we have hit it all year, but we just couldn’t get it done tonight. We will come back next week and get to work getting ready for UMS-Wright next Friday for the first round of the playoffs.”

 

The Tigers will travel to Mobile next week for round one of the AHSAA Class 4A state playoffs against the No. 1 ranked UMS-Wright Bulldogs.