Decatur Holds Onto 1st In Region With 12-1 Win Over Banneker
On Friday, the Decatur Bulldogs traveled to face the Banneker Trojans in conference play. The Bulldogs came into the match up with only one Region loss at 16-1 and a slight Region lead over Riverwood, who was 15-1 going into Friday. It would the Trojans that would that would take an early lead in the bottom of the first when #16 would come up with the RBI single with two outs and a runner on third to go up 1-0 and maintain that lead going into the top of the third inning.
In the third inning, the Bulldogs bats began to warm up as they would tie the game at 1-1 when #7 would come up to bat with no outs and runners at first and third and connect for the RBI single. Two batters later, #2 would step to the plate with one out and runners on the corners again for the Bulldogs and come up with another RBI single as Decatur would go up 2-1 over the Trojans. The Bulldogs would go on to close out the inning with a 3-1 lead as the Trojan batters would go down one, two, three in the bottom of the third.
The Bulldogs would tack on two more runs in the top of the fourth to make it a 5-1 game after #7 would get his second hit of the game with a two run double. With Banneker would failing to add any runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Decatur would take a 5-1 lead into the top of the fifth inning, where they got their bats going once again. After getting on base with a lead off single, #2 would go on to steal second and third and then advance home after the bad over throw to third by Banneker giving the Bulldogs a 6-1 lead.
As the inning continued and the Bulldogs up 7-1, #17 would step up to bat with one out and runners at second and third and knock in both runners courtesy of a triple and Decatur now leading 9-1. The next batter, #3, would bring in #17 with an RBI single, his second hit of the game and Decatur now up 10-1. The next two batters would each come up with RBI’s to help lift the Bulldogs 12-1 over the Trojans and go on to win by that final score to improve to 17-1 in the Region and 20-6 overall. The Bulldogs still maintain their slight Region lead over Riverwood as they also won on Friday to improve to 16-1 in the Region.