Faith Academy coach Matt Seymour greets Keith Ceasor at third base after Ceasor’s two-run homer in the first inning against Saraland Friday at Faith. The Rams stayed hot, beating the Spartans 11-1 for their eighth straight victory and the 6A Area 1 title. (John O’Dell/Call News)
Saraland’s Cam Warren delivers a pitch during Friday’s 11-1 loss to Faith Academy. Warren started and took the loss, allowing four runs on three hits in three innings. (John O’Dell/Call News)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
MOBILE — Faith Academy coach Matt Seymour isn’t sure if his baseball team is peaking at the right time but one thing is certain: Opponents are likely to get queasy thinking about playing the Rams in the postseason.
No. 6-ranked Faith completed a sweep of No. 3 Saraland with an 11-1 mercy-rule rout on Friday to hammer rivets into the 6A Area 1 championship.
Keith Ceasor whacked a two-run home run in the first inning to give the Rams the lead for good and Riley Hall stifled the Spartans with a complete-game three-hitter featuring seven strikeouts and no walks.
“I think we’re getting there,” Seymour said in the gloaming of a perfect spring day. “You never say you are there. Our guys will tell you our goal is to get better every day and every day practice a little harder. We played well.”
Faith (18-5, 6-0) — which has won eight straight games and 12 of its last 13 — can still win the league championship even if it loses both games to Murphy (3-3) on April 12 and if Theodore (4-2) sweeps the Spartans because the Rams own the tiebreaker with two wins over the Bobcats.
Saraland (22-7, 3-3) must sweep Theodore April 11-12 to reach the postseason. If they split, the Bobcats will go to the playoffs.
“Faith has got a good team,” Spartans coach Brett Boutwell said. “Hats off to coach Seymour. He’s a class dude. They deserved to win the series. We’ve got to go back and regroup and fight to get into the playoffs.”
After rallying to defeat Saraland 4-2 Thursday night, the Rams leafed through five Spartans pitchers Friday and got plenty of help, although they didn’t need it, from Saraland, which looked nothing like the team that won 17 straight games from the end of February through March.
“We had too many leadoff walks,” Boutwell said. “The game doesn’t lie. A lot of times you give up a leadoff walk and they’re gonna score.”
The Spartans gave up leadoff walks in the second, fourth and fifth innings and all of them scored. They walked eight batters. Two runs scored on wild pitches and two more on infield throwing errors. A double play in Faith’s game-ending five-run fifth and five Rams stranded in scoring position kept it from being even worse for Saraland.
But Faith also did not stand around waiting for gifts.
Four of its eight hits Friday were on two-strike counts, including Gavin Prewitt’s RBI single in the fourth. Both of his hits Thursday were also on two-strike counts, including a two-run double.
Ceasor didn’t wait for two strikes on Friday. His two-run homer to right field was on losing pitcher Cam Warren’s first pitch.
“Coach wanted us to be more aggressive,” Ceasor said. “It was a first-pitch fastball. I’ve been working on keeping my head quiet and going the opposite way. I had to wait a little — I thought it would hit the fence and keep going. It changed the whole momentum of the game.”
The Rams’ 7-8-9 hitters — Brodie Wilson, Carson Ratliff, Brayden Slay and Brodie Lambert — were 4-for-14 in the two-game sweep.
Hall, Auburn signee Eli Driskell and relievers Brodie Barrentine and Trey McDonald fed the Spartans crumbs after falling behind early Thursday and Friday, allowing just three hits after the first inning in both games combined.
“We’re doing the little things well — two-strike hits, putting the ball in play and making things happen,” Seymour said. “They’re starting to realize what can happen when you do that. We’ve got guys swinging the bats well. We jumbled up the lineup; I think we finally found a good fix there. And our back end — if you’re going to have a good team and win big games, the back of the lineup has got to do a good job and we have. They’re getting hits and moving runners along. And we’ve been pitching well.”
Hall (4-1) threw 86 pitches — 50 for strikes — allowed one unearned run and got nine first-pitch strikes to soothe his early jitters.
“I got ahead in the count and was throwing offspeed at any count,” he said. “I was a little nervous in the first inning, then it was good.”
Saraland led 1-0 in the first when Santae McWilliams was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on catcher Prewitt’s wild throw into left field trying to catch McWilliams stealing third. McWilliams has 32 steals this season.
But Faith took the lead on Ceasor’s homer, then pulled away with a run in the second, three in the third and five in the fifth.
Carlos Ortiz and Lambert each had two hits and two RBIs.
Warren (2-2) allowed three hits and three earned runs in three innings.
