By By Fredie Carmichael/Special to The Star
April 21, 2001
The Southeast Lauderdale baseball team ran into a hot hitting Greene County ballclub at home Friday night as the visiting Wildcats ended the Tigers' season thanks to a 21-2 victory to claim the best-of-three series in two games.
Larry Ethridge's squad was unable to fight back from some early mistakes and was forced to play catch up the rest of the night.
After two Wildcat batters reached on an error in the top of the first, Gary Dixon brought one home with a fielder's choice and another was balked in to put the visitors up 2-0.
Greene County added four runs in the second and three in the third that had the Wildcats up by a commanding 9-0.
The Tigers couldn't get going at the plate and the Wildcats made them pay in a big way in the top of the fourth. Greene County made the hole that it had started digging a lot bigger in the inning as the Wildcats exploded for 10 runs and never looked back. The inning was capped off by a towering grand slam by Nick Chattam that made it 19-0.
Greene County carried a no-hitter into the bottom of the fifth and final inning before Tiger senior T.J. Aniel broke it up with a single up the middle. The Tigers got on the board and avoided the shutout as well by plating two runs in the inning on a bases-loaded walk and an RBI-single from Jonathan Russell.
Southeast ended its season with a 9-10 record, and Ethridge was glad to see the team at least realize one of its goals which was to make it to the playoffs.