MAGEE-The Magee Trojans advanced to the second round of the state 4A playoffs with a 3-2 win over Lawrence County, at the Magee City Sports Complex. The contest was the decisive game of a best-of-three series.

“It hurts,” first-year Lawrence County coach Josh Garrett said. “You hate to see any season end. We’re competitive people and wanted so badly to extend our season by another week. As much as it hurts, though, I’m still very proud of my team. This group of players has been a pleasure to deal with.”

Magee won the first game 6-5 on Thursday at Magee. On Friday, at Jimmie Davis Park in Monticello, Lawrence County rolled to a 12-3 victory. Playing for the third straight day on Saturday, both teams were deep into their respective pitching staffs. Magee turned to freshman right-hander Dalton Cockrell, and he came through in a big way.

In six and two-thirds innings, Cockrell limited Lawrence County to just three singles. He struck out three and issued two bases on balls. Shortstop Devonta Calero relieved Cockrell with two outs in the seventh. He got a fielder’s choice ground ball to end the game.

The Lawrence County duo of Logan Greenlee and Brennan Lang was almost as effective. Greenlee shut Magee out over the first two innings but ran into trouble in the third. Magee scored three runs on three hits, with the help of three bases on balls. A two-run triple by left fielder J.D. Hayes was the biggest blow of the game. Hayes also drove in all three Magee runs in Friday’s game.

Left-hander Brennan Lang relieved Greenlee with two outs in the third. He got a ground ball to end that inning. Then he shut the Trojans out over the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. He gave up three hits and struck out one. Greenlee and Lang were aided by spectacular diving catches by all three LCHS out-fielders: T-Tez Cole, Brandon Bullock and Marcus Atterberry. At least two of the three catches saved runs.

“We defended really well today,” long-time LCHS assistant Craig Davis said. “Take away a couple of great plays by our guys, and they might have put up several more runs. Their center-fielder did the same thing to us, though. He absolutely took two runs from us in the first inning.”

In the top of the first, with runners on second and third and two out, Cockrell and Cougar first baseman Josh Stephens dueled in an epic, nine-pitch at-bat. Stephens had seemingly won out when he laced an apparent RBI hit to center. However, Magee’s Alonzo Brown raced in and made a spectacular diving catch, saving his team two runs. In the fourth, Trojan third baseman Brewunta Johnson’s grab of a Marcus Atterberry smash likely saved another run.

Magee’s three-run third held up until the top of the sixth, when Lawrence County took advantage of a walk and an error to score two runs. Atterberry had an RBI single.

Entering the top of the seventh, Magee held a 3-2 lead. With two outs, LCHS shortstop Gabriel Lewis laced a single to the right, his second hit of the game. At that point, Calero relieved Cockrell, and a grounder to shortstop ended the Cougars’ season.

Alonzo Brown, J.D. Hayes and Doc McLaurin each had two hits for Magee, which improved to 20-6 on the season. Lawrence County finished with a record of 14-12.

“We had a very decent little season,” assistant Davis said. “But we were just a handful of plays from having a great season. I thought our guys competed very well. Hats off to our three seniors. They’re a great group of guys.”