By T. Scott Boatright
JONESBORO — Baseball can be a fickle game — it can all change in a hurry.
The Choudrant Aggies were reminded of that Thursday evening at the Jonesboro Recreation Complex with an early lead evaporating in the second inning as CHS fell 12-2 to second-seeded Weston in second-round play of the Division V Nonselect School Boys Baseball Playoffs.
Choudrant jumped out early as shortstop Braden Bagwell led off the game with a double before TJ Smith blasted a two-run homer over the left field fence to stake the Aggies to a 2-0 advantage.
Aggies starting pitcher Eli Callendar worked himself out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom half of the opening stanza while striking out a pair of Wolves.
Calendar and the Aggies weren’t as fortunate in the bottom of the second inning as Weston plated eight runs off of seven hits with multiple errors also costing the Aggies as the Wolves never looked back from there.
“TJ’s home run to start off the game got us really excited and I really thought we were going to have a shot there,” said Aggies coach Joel Antley. “But then they had that big inning and it just took it all out of us.
“Eli walked a couple (of batters) and we made a couple of errors and they got a couple of really good hits and things just spiraled there. But outside of that big inning, we were OK.”
That might have made the sting a little worse for the Aggies.
“If we would have held them to three or four runs there, it would have made it a 4-2 game or something like that and we would have still been in it,” Amtley said. “Those errors were uncharacteristic of us because we strive on playing good defense.
“It just didn’t happen for us tonight.”
Weston added a pair of runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to end the game on the 10-run rule.
Those two first inning hits were all the Aggies could manage on the night while Weston finished with 12 hits aided by five Choudrant errors.
Callendar gave up four earned runs off eight hits while striking out four Wolves in three innings on the mound before giving way to Colton Smith, who gave up a pair of earned runs off of three hits.
Choudrant, which finished the season with a record of 13-17, will lose three seniors off of this year’s team — Callendar, Smith and Jackson Pyle.
“”When you have three seniors and they’re all starters, they’re kind of the core of your offense and your defense and that was true of those guys,” Antley said. “Eli on the mound and here lately TJ had become our RBI guy in the last couple of weeks
“It’s always hard to fill the holes left by departing seniors, but hopefully somebody will step up to fill their shoes and we’ll get back after it.”
