Strong pitching puts Airport baseball on verge of state championship series

Airport baseball used a tried-and-true formula to take early control of the Class 4A Lower State Championship series.

Cash Epps limited things on the mound and the Eagles found just enough offense for a 4-1 victory over South Florence at home on Tuesday night.

Airport leads the best-of-3 series 1-0 with Game 2 slated for South Florence at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday night.

“Our arms have thrown the ball over the plate and got us deep into ball games and gives us a chance with a lot of ground balls. He did it again tonight. That was good stuff” Airport coach Casey Bradwell said of Epps’ performance.

Epps continued a trend Airport (24-6) has used the entire postseason. In six playoff games, the Eagles have allowed a total of 13 runs and allowed just per game in each of their last three.

Epps allowed one earned run on three hits with two strikeouts, a walk and a hit batter in 5 1/3 innings. More importantly, he threw 74 pitches, allowing him to be eligible to pitch again on Saturday if the series goes to the decisive game.

Hunter Epps closed it out to earn the save, allowing one hit and a hit batter over the final 1 2/3 innings. Even though Airport made three errors, they also turned three double plays including a 4-6-3 twin-killing to end the game.

“That’s the way it’s been all year,” Bradwell said. “We’ll kick some balls but we’ve done a better job here lately of not letting it affect us. We get another ground ball and roll it right behind it.”

Airport’s offense only collected six hits but they walked five times, were hit by a pitch and stole three bases. They might have run out of some situations, but they put pressure on the Bruins defense to make plays.

Brayden Dunlap opened the scoring in the second inning with a sacrifice fly and then the Eagles added another run on a wild pitch to go up 2-0. The throw back to the plate went into the infield and the Eagles had a runner thrown out trying to score from second on the play.

Braden Gross added to the lead in the third inning with an RBI single to left field that was misplayed, allowing another run to score on the play. Gross was thrown out trying to reach third on the play. But that would be enough offense for the pitching staff.

“I’ll learn, I’m learning and I’m always learning,” Bradwell joked about the base path miscues. “We’ll address everything we need to tomorrow but we’re going to be aggressive and try to put pressure on people to see what will happen. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. We’re going to keep doing it.”

Justin Sightler led the Airport offense with a 2-for-3 night. South Florence (20-11) scored its only run of the night on an RBI double from Khalon McGee in the fifth inning.

Now Bradwell and the Eagles look to win one more to put them back in the state championship for the first time since 2018.

“We have a lot of young kids that just want to play,” Bradwell said. “This group is a tough bunch that loves playing the game and loves being around each other. I’m not worried about them thinking about what’s next.”