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Fort Payne baseball team wins two of three

By Lew Gilliland
The Times-Journal

Published March 3, 2008

Fort Payne High School’s baseball team is no longer undefeated, but head coach Johnny Johnson and his players still had reason to feel good about things when the time came to go home Saturday.

The Wildcats won two of three games on the day, but the lone loss came in the championship game of the Sand Mountain Classic at Boaz. The setback snapped Fort Payne’s season-opening seven-game winning streak.

Fort Payne was scheduled to play four games, but rain that moved through the area Friday caused the Cats to postpone a matchup with Plainview due to a wet field. Fort Payne could not get the field ready to play in time for a 10 a.m. start.

The Cats were able to play their scheduled home game against Scottsboro and picked up a 7-2 victory before traveling to Boaz and downing Sardis 7-0 in a Classic semifinal. Boaz beat Fort Payne 8-3 in the title game.

“Anytime you go into a long day like that, you want to win all the games, but getting two out of three is still a successful day,” said Johnson, who has led Fort Payne to its best start of the decade. “Getting to 7-1 is uncharted territory in my tenure here, so there’s isn’t a whole lot to complain about.”

The top highlights of the day came courtesy pitchers Kyle Conkle and Slade Smith.

Conkle worked a four-hitter against Scottsboro and threw 51 strikes in 68 pitches. One of the runs he allowed was unearned.

Smith improved to 3-0 by tossing a two-hitter against Sardis. He struck out 13 and didn’t walk a batter.

“You’ve come to expect that Slade is going to come out and give you innings, but Conkle was the big one for me, especially after struggling in his last outing,” Johnson said. “To come out and dominate Scottsboro like he did and only throw 70 pitches in seven innings was a big lift for the team.”

Conkle also had a huge day at the plate. He was 6-for-9 with a homer, two doubles and five RBIs. The homer was his first of the year and Fort Payne’s fourth, which exceeds last year’s team total by one.

Among the negatives for Fort Payne was its strikeout total. The Cats whiffed 33 times in three games, including 17 in the victory over Sardis.

“What concerns me is our pitch selection,” Johnson said. “We’re watching a lot of good pitches without swinging and swinging at a lot of the ones that are out of the [strike] zone. It’s something we’re going to have to get better at because when we get into area play we’re going to face better pitching than what we’ve seen.”

Boaz 8, Fort Payne 3

Fort Payne pounded out 12 hits, including two apiece by Nick Johnson, Conkle, Will Davis, Austin Carpenter and Kyle Crabtree. Conkle drove in two runs, and Davis’ totals included a double.

The Cats led 2-1 before Boaz put together a seven-run rally in the fourth. On a positive note, Carpenter pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Fort Payne 7, Sardis 0

Conkle closed 2-for-3 with a homer, double and two RBIs. He scored twice. Davis finished 2-for-4 with two doubles and one RBI.

Fort Payne took command early, scoring single runs in the first and second before adding three in the third.

Fort Payne 7, Scottsboro 2

Conkle was 2-for-2 with a double and one RBI. Teammate Brett Roberts closed 2-for-3. Both scored once.

Fort Payne scored four runs in the first and one in the second. Scottsboro cut the margin to 5-2 in the top half of the fifth, but the Cats answered with two runs of their own in the home half.

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