As heard on New Country 104.1, the #5 Taylorville Tornadoes lost to conference rivals #3 Mt. Zion 9-1 in the first round of the playoffs.  Andrew Tay of Mt. Zion struck out 11 Tornadoes, and Evan Howley hit a grand slam in the victory.  The Braves jumped out to a 1-0 lead early thanks to a Sammy Driscoll triple and a Jackson Beiler sacrifice fly.  Driscoll had a fantastic day at the dish going 3-3 with two triples and one base hit.  He was intentionally walked in the sixth.

The Tornadoes cut the deficit to 1 in 5th inning, to trail 2-1 but Driskell scored on a Howley sacrifice fly and Jaxon Nickell hit a towering 2 run homerun off of Colton Gatton in the bottom of the fifth. The grand slam from Howley in the bottom of the sixth inning sealed the win for the Braves who move on to face Rochester on Saturday morning at 11 AM.

For Taylorville Maxx Grieme was named the Nicole Patrick Country Financial Player of the game as he went 3-3 with a double and two base hits. He was also significant behind the plate and nearly nailed Driscoll coming home on the sacrifice. Baron Odam also had two spectacular catches out in left field saving at least two runs. 

                   1  2   3   4  5  6  7  R  H   E

Taylorville 0  0   0  0   1  0  0   1  5   1
Mt. Zion    1  0   1  0   3  4  X   9  7   0

W Andrew Tay
L Colton Gatton

Taylorville finishes their season 19-10. Congratulations to all of the Taylorville baseball seniors and wish them the best moving forward.