RISON - Palestine-Wheatley pitcher Jacob Hickman managed to escape some early scoring opportunities unscathed last Thursday as he guided the Patriots to a 5-1 victory over the Rison Wildcats in the first round the Class 2A State Baseball Tournament at Greenland High School.
Rison ended the season with a 14-11 record that included a second place finish in the South Region Tournament and the Wildcats' first state tournament bid since 2018.
Palestine-Wheatley, meanwhile, went on to upset the West Region's top seed, Greenland, and the Central Region's top seed, Episcopal Collegiate, to make the Class 2A state championship game this Friday against Woodlawn.
Hickman, a sophomore, managed to hold Rison in check through the second and third innings as the Wildcats put runners in scoring positions in each frame but came up empty.
In the second inning, Rison's Andrew Couture had a two-out triple before a line drive ended the frame. In the third inning, a one-out walk to Lawson Kidd followed by a double from Jud Terry put runners at second and third with one out, but the 'Cats could never get a run home.
Rison finally broke through in the fourth when Owen Morrison led off with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Matthew Howard, tagged up to third on Couture's fly ball to center and then scored on a dropped third strike, giving the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.
The Patriots answered in top of the fifth as they used a walk, a hit batter and a single to load the bases with one out. Freshman Brody Parker then hit a double into center that scored two runs to put Palestine-Wheatley up 2-1.
The Patriots added to that lead in the sixth when a bases-loaded walk pushed their lead to 3-1.
Palestine-Wheatley's final two runs came off a two-out double by Tra Guthrie in the top of the seventh.
After scoring a run in the fourth, Rison did not have another baserunner until Ayden Laws singled in th...
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