Columbus High School baseball found itself in the driver’s seat in the bottom of the fourth inning as West Lowndes starting pitcher Cameron Ellis had loaded the bases with no outs on Monday night.
Down 5-3 at the time, the Falcons needed some sort of boost to get themselves back in the game, a big inning to turn the tides around.
To that point, it was a cat-and-mouse game between the Panthers and Falcons, with West Lowndes scoring first and taking a two-run lead but Columbus coming right back to tie things up.
That moment was here in the fifth, but Ellis settled down on the mound, allowing just one run as he stranded the bases loaded. The Panthers had just a 5-4 lead to that point, but the offense kicked in quickly, scoring seven runs in the fifth to blow things open en route to a 17-6 win.
“I just kept my head straight,” Ellis said. “My arm started hurting a little bit, but the team needed me so I kept going, kept throwing strikes.”
The senior left-hander finished with six strikeouts and three walks in a complete-game win, allowing five earned runs.
As Columbus (0-3) struggled to find consistent pitching throughout the game, using a plethora of pitchers, especially in the fifth and sixth innings as the Falcons couldn’t find the strike zone, Ellis was a constant for the Panthers (1-2).
“Cam, with him being a senior, I wanted to give him the opportunity to pitch that game,” West Lowndes head coach Jermaine Liggins said. “He started off struggling a bit, but I told him to keep his composure and to throw strikes and let his defense work behind him.
“He did that, and everything worked out well for him.”
Coming off the mound in that fourth inning, Ellis and West Lowndes were fired up, and that immediately translated into great plate discipline and timely hitting in the final two innings of the game.
Plate discipline in a game where the Panthers didn’t see many strikes in the last few innings was difficult, but credit to West Lowndes for taking what the Falcons were giving them at the plate.
Panthers hitters ended up working 13 walks in the game, including three straight bases-loaded walks in the fifth inning.
All told, West Lowndes scored 12 runs in the final two innings of play to put the game to bed.
“We kept our composure and just tried to put the ball in play, working together as a team and communicating,” Ellis said.
It was a banner win for the Panthers, their first of the season and the first in Liggins’ coaching career at the school, which coincided with a well-deserved Gatorade bath after the final out.
Moving forward, the key for West Lowndes will be to continue to build off great pitching performances from players like Ellis and get the bats going early and often.
“We have to continue to make the routine plays on defense, continue to have great at-bats and build, taking this game tonight, celebrate the win but getting back on it tomorrow,” Liggins said.
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