St. Paul's Episcopal School took advantage of a pair of American Christian Academy errors to win Game 1 of the Class 5A state championship series 3-2 on Thursday at Oxford's Choccolocco Park.
The Saints (28-9-1) fell behind 1-0 on a solo home run by Clayton Rice in the second inning before pushing across a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth and adding what proved to be the game-winner in the fifth.
St. Paul's designated hitter Bradley Irish smacked a 1-out single in the fourth, stole second and scored on an error by American Christian pitcher Jaylen Crocker to knot the score. Tate Johnston, who had walked, also scored on the error to give the Saints the lead.
In the fifth inning, Taylor O'Dell got a 1-out walk, took second on a single by Hudson Farrell and third on a sacrifice fly to center by Irish. O'Dell scored on an error by center fielder Eric Hines.
American Christian (30-14-1) got a run in the top of the sixth for the final margin. Hines led off with a walk, went to second on a passed ball and scored on Hunter Elmore's RBI single.
St. Paul's stranded 10 runners in the win while American Christian left 3 on base. The Saints did not have an error.
Winning pitcher Tate Farrell retired the side in order in the top of the seventh with a strikeout, fly out to center field and another strikeout. Farrell gave up 2 earned runs on 5 hits with 7 strikeouts and 2 walks in 7 innings. He was also 2-for-3 at the plate.
Third baseman Edward McLeod was 3-for-4 for St. Paul's. Johnston, who had a double, and Ross Delaney were both 1-for-3 and Irish was 1-for-1.
Crocker gave up 3 unearned runs on 8 hits with 5 strikeouts and 7 walks to take the loss for American Christian.
Elmore was 2-for-3 for the Patriots. Rice, Hines and BJ Garth were all 1-for-2 in the loss.
St. Paul's will be looking for a sweep and its seventh baseball championship in Game 2 on Friday at 10 a.m. at Jacksonville State's Jim Case Stadium. Game 3, if necessary, will follow. The Saints won a 5A championship in 2003, 4A titles in 1999 and 2000, a 3A championship in 1994 and 2A titles in 1978 and '79.
American Christian has five state championships, the last in Class 2A in 2011. The Patriots won three straight from 2004-06 in 1A.