The Red Level Tigers put up a strong fight, but were swept by the Holy Spirit Saints on Friday in second round of the Class 2A state playoffs in Red Level.

GAME ONE

HOLY SPIRIT 9,

RED LEVEL 6

In the first game of the day, the Tigers fought back but fell 9-6.

Holy Spirit’s first batter of the game hit a ball to second base that was mishandled and gave the Saints a leadoff runner.

Kade Green got the next batter to fly out and then picked up a strikeout for the second out.

Holy Spirit then got a single that allowed them to go up 1-0.

In the bottom of the first inning, Red Level put the bat on the ball, but was unable to get a base runner.

Holy Spirit got a double to start the top of the second inning.

Green then picked up a ground out and a strikeout for the first two outs of the frame.

The Saints then picked up another RBI on a two-out hit to take a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the second inning, Bryson Pate singled with one out.

The Tigers weren’t able to move him off first before the Saints ended the inning.

In the top of the third inning, Holy Spirit got a single and the runner moved to second off of an error.

Green then got the next three batters to end the frame.

Red Level got a leadoff single from Ethan Edson to get the bottom of the third inning started.

However, a ripped a line drive to shortstop that was caught and then the throw to first caught Edson napping.

Green struck out the first batter he faced in the top of the fourth inning and then got a ground out for the second out.

Holy Spirit then took advantage of a two-out error that kept the frame going.

The Saints collected four-straight singles and then another error allowed them to go up 5-0.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Chance Russell got a two-out single to get things going for the Tigers.

Pate followed with a single to put runners on first and second.

Parker Spears then laced a hit to right field. The ball was misplayed by the right fielders and both runners came around to score.

The Tigers then took advantage of an error as Spears came around to score.

Edson followed with a run-scoring single to make the score 5-4 after four innings of play.

In the top of the fifth inning, the Saints got a leadoff runner after an error by the Tigers.

The Saints then got a walk to put a pair of runners on base.

Holy Spirit then got a one-out single that plated a pair of runs.

A few batters later, Holy Spirit picked up another two-run hit to go up 9-4.

Braxton Lee got things going in the bottom of the fifth inning with a single and then quickly stole second.

Green then drove him in with a single to make the score 9-5.

In the top of the sixth inning, Green got the first batter to fly out to Tucker Livings in center field.

The next batter popped out to Edson at first and then Green struck out the next batter to end the frame.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Tigers went down in order.

Green worked around an error and a hit in the top of the seventh inning to keep the score at 9-5.

Lee opened up the bottom of the seventh inning with a single and moved to second on a ground out by Green.

Livings followed with a single that allowed Lee to score the final run of the game.

GAME TWO

HOLY SPIRIT 9,

RED LEVEL 5

In the final game of the day, the Tigers again put up a strong fight, but fell 9-5.

The Tigers went down in order to start the top of the first inning.

In the bottom of the first inning, Holy Spirit got things started with a walk.

The Holy Spirit catcher then laced a triple into the gap that let them take an early 1-0 lead.

Red Level got a leadoff hit batter to start the top of the second inning and then picked up a single from Spears.

However, the Tigers were unable to bring either around to score.

Holy Spirit did what they had been doing all day when the got a two-out double that plated a pair of runs to put them up 3-0 after two innings of play.

In the top of the third inning, Zavier Phillips singled to start the frame for the Tigers.

Lee followed with a single to put runners on first and second.

After a double play gave them two outs, Livings drove in Phillips to make the score 3-1.

In the bottom of the third, Holy Spirit picked up another run.

After the run scored, Livings struck out the next two batters to end the inning.

Spears started the top of the fourth inning with an infield single.

A few batters later, Edson was hit by a pitch.

Phillips then drove in a run off of an error by Holy Spirit to make the score 4-3.

Holy Spirit came right back in the bottom of the fourth inning and took a 7-3 advantage.

In the top of the fifth inning, Russell singled with two-outs to give the Tigers some life.

Pate then singled to keep the frame going for the Tigers.

Spears then drew a walk to load the bases.

Cody Shepard then drove in a pair of runs off of an error.

The Saints were able to tack on two more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to finish off the game.

“These kids fought and never gave in,” Red Level head coach Todd Smith said. “At the end of the day, we played a good team. I thought Holy Spirit did a great job mixing it up and keeping us off balanced. Early in the game they jumped on us and got ahead. We made a lot of errors in the first game. I thought Kade (Green) pitched well, but we just didn’t played well enough behind him. Then we started hitting, but it was too late. Kind of the same thing in game two. We got down a bit and then fought back. At the end of the day, I was proud of our pitchers and proud of the way we battled at the plate.”