NICEVILLE — It was an impressive pitcher’s duel between Niceville starter Brady Martin and Columbia starter Ayden Phillips.
One swing just made the difference.
Deacon Avery hit two solo home runs off Phillips, the second breaking a 1-1 tie in the fifth inning that was the difference in a 2-1 win for the No. 1 seed Panthers over the No. 5 seed Tigers on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Region 1-5A semifinals.
Martin, a Troy commit, only allowed four hits and hit batter while finishing with eight strikeouts in a complete-game performance for Niceville (26-4). That was just good enough to outduel Phillips, who also struck out eight and went the distance while giving up six hits and a walk in addition to hitting a batter.
Columbia (17-11) now faces elimination in Game 2, which is set for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. central time back in Niceville.
“It was two good pitchers going at it, that’s about all you can say,” Columbia coach Chris Howard said. “Their pitcher was really good, our pitcher was really good, and they got two better swings than we did.”
Avery’s first solo shot came in the third inning while the second came just a frame after Phillips had gotten the first run back with a solo homer of his own in the fourth.
“One of them should have counted for two because it was a bomb,” Howard said. “He was just a good hitter. He hit a fastball, and the next at-bat hit a breaking ball.
“He hit good pitches. He really did. The pitches could’ve been a little better, of course, but he put a good swing on both of them.”
Phillips managed to hold the Eagles to those two runs despite running into trouble in a couple of other instances. The senior stranded runners at first and second base in the opening frame after giving up a pair of two-out singles and later left two runners in scoring position in the fourth after giving up two one-out singles.
Niceville had a chance to extend the lead after Avery homered with two outs in the fifth as well. An error put a runner on second and Phillips hit a batter before escaping further damage with a groundout.
“We’re not in that game without him,” Howard said of Phillips. “I told the guys that I felt like it was going to be a tough game. Credit to them. They hit two home runs. And credit our guys, we played hard and got out of some situations where they could’ve scored some more runs.”
Unfortunately for Phillips, seven of the nine guys in the lineup couldn’t touch Martin, who never allowed more than one baserunner in any inning. Phillips and McKenzie both went 2 for 3 to account for all of the Tigers’ hits and their only other baserunner of the night came when Goose Lord was hit with a pitch to start the third, but Martin retired the next three batters to keep Columbia off the scoreboard.
One of McKenzie’s hits was a two-out single in the sixth inning that brought Phillips to the plate. But McKenzie got caught leaning too far off the base and was picked off by catcher Nicholas Gates to end the frame.
“That hurt,” Howard said. “We had Ayden up to bat and that was a big out for them.”
Phillips stepped back to the plate in the seventh and led off with a single, but he didn’t stay on base long. Tison McCray then laid down a bunt that was quickly fielded by Martin, who threw Phillips out at second.
“It went downhill from there,” Howard said.
Martin then struck out Casen Maddox and Howard called for McCray to steal second to try and get in scoring position, but McCray was thrown out to end the game. It capped off an efficient 88-pitch night for Martin.
“He was the real deal, a good baseball player,” Howard said.
Columbia will now try to stave off elimination Thursday night with Bynton Edge on the bump. A win would send the series to Lake City for a decisive Game 3 on Saturday.
“The goal was to try and get one out here and get them back at home and see what we can do,” Howard said.