WESSON – Taylorsville took advantage of back-to-back Wessonerrors in the fifth inning Friday night and took home a huge 8-4win in the opening round of a best-of-three series in the Class 2Astate baseball playoffs.

Wesson (17-8) played at Taylorsville (18-10) Saturday in the secondgame of the series. If necessary, a third game will be playedMonday.

“We got the win,” said Taylorsville head coach Dusty Hillman afterthe win. “We had some key hits. We could have swung the batsbetter.”

The Cobras, coached by Hugh Knight, came into the fifth inning witha 3-2 lead over the Tartars. With 1 out, Cameron Henderson andGarrett Boykin reached base on errors. Mason Walley ripped a hardsingle and drove in 2 runs as Taylorsville took a 4-3 lead.

Taylorsville’s Dominique Sullivan followed with a double and DylanEvans hit a sacrifice fly to deep center to score Walley for thefifth run. Lain Jordan was walked and the bases were loaded again.Henderson, in his second at-bat during the inning, hit an RBIsingle and Boykin followed with an RBI single to push the Tartars’lead to 7-3 before the side was retired.

In the top of the sixth, Taylorsville added another run for an 8-4lead.

The bottom of the seventh saw Wesson put up another run to cut thedeficit to 8-4 before the final out. Matt Smith led off with adouble. The next 2 batters were retired before Gib Britt and CalebBroome were walked to load the bases. Tyson Wesley struck out toend the game.

Posting the win was sophomore Josh Pankratz (5-0) in 6 innings with7 strikeouts, 5 walks and 7 hits allowed. Working the final inningwas Henderson.

Broome (7-2) absorbed the loss, working 5.1 innings with 6strikeouts, 5 walks and 7 hits allowed. Britt finished in reliefwith 3 strikeouts and 1 hit allowed.

Singling for the Cobras were Broome, Kyle Cross and Boone.

Powering Taylorsville with a double and 2 singles was Sullivan.Henderson ripped 2 RBI singles.