In a swing of Andy Hale’s bat, the game became all Raiders.
A three-run homer by Hale in the top of the fourth put Spring Hill on top for good Tuesday night.
With their 5-1 win over Milan (27-12-1) in Smyrna, the Raiders (30-9) advanced past the first round of the Division I Class AA playoffs.
Hale hit 1 of 2, with a walk. He also had four RBIs, knocking in Wilson in the top of the sixth with a sacrifice fly, in addition the three-run home run.
Brady Johnson, for the Raiders, went 2 for 3 with a run and an RBI. His single in the top of the seventh drove in Hunter Whitwell for Spring Hill’s last run of the night.
Whitwell hit 2 for 4, while three others had a hit.
Pitching did much of the rest of the work for Spring Hill.
Gage Gillian’s glove somehow didn’t catch fire as he burned through the Milan line-up. In five innings’ work he struck out 11, walked only 3, all while allowing just 3 hits against 3 walks. Of the 101 pitches he threw 62 snapped into the catcher’s glove as strikes.
He passed the torch to Brycen Thomas, who threw flames in relief: 4 K’s in two innings’ work, no hits, no walks and strikes on 16 of his 22 pitches.
Milan finished with just three hits, an error and 15 strike-outs.
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