Landon Ellis struck out eight and allowed one hit in five innings Tuesday to lead the Victory Christian Academy baseball team to an 11-1 victory against Victory Baptist (Millbrook, Ala.) in the Alabama Christian Educators Association playoffs.
The victory pushes Victory Christian (10-1) into the ACEA Final Four at 3 p.m. Friday at Northside in Dothan, Ala. The Eagles likely will play Northside.
Victory Christian was forced to play Tuesday after it lost a coin flip with Tuscaloosa Christian. The teams split two regular-season meetings and were tied for the top spot in the region. The No. 1 seed received an automatic bid to the Final Four.
The right-handed Ellis helped the Eagles take care of business in their mercy-rule victory. He walked three and never was in trouble.
“Besides the guys he walked I don”t think he went to a three-ball count,” Victory Christian first-year coach Brent Harris said. “He did an excellent job throwing strikes.”
Ben Williams (three RBIs) and Tyler Jones (double) had two hits to lead the Eagles.
Seniors Parker Eaves, who was hit by a pitch three times, and C.J. Bell didn”t have a hit, but Ellis, Anthony Sharp, Taylor Frye, and Sam Fisher had hits to help Victory Christian keep pressure on Victory Baptist the entire game.
“I was really pleased because we made good contact,” Harris said. “If we make contact anything can happen. We had only two strikeouts, which has pretty much been the case the whole year.”
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