LINDEN &8212; The lack of bats that plagued the Longhorns earlier this week in two losses is no longer an issue it seems. The group beat its first opponent in a best two out of three series in the Alabama Independent School Association state playoffs in two games that combined for only 11 innings.

Though the team dropped two games to Pickens and Patrician on Monday and Tuesday, the group took the diamond with a renewed vigor, decimating their opponent, Jackson Academy, by a combined score of 27-2 in their two match ups yesterday. Coach Jonathan Lindsey put the change in play succinctly:

Not only did the tam hit the ball, it crushed it. Seven Horns combined their at bats in the two games for 29 hits, 14 in the first game and 15 in the second. Their opponent on the other hand only managed six hits, a minute two in the first game and four in the second.

In the first game the golden bat for the team went to Brett Vick, who went 2-for-4 with a double, a grand slam to boot and recorded five RBIs. In the second he would go 2-for-5 and rack up two more doubles and two more RBIs.

The leading batter of the second game would prove to be Dustin Edwards, who would go 3-5 and run the gamut by recording a single, a double and a homer with tree RBIs for icing. He recorded a single and a double with two more RBIs in the first match up.

Of course the Longhorn pitching would go a long way to compliment the batting and holding both games to short innings. Lindsey said the team&8217;s pitching has been consistent on the season leaving the batting as the unknown variable.

In the first game pitcher Chris Tidwell started the day off right and had seven strikeouts, giving up only two his in five innings. Thomas Fultz would follow in his footsteps and record nine strikeouts and give up four hits in six innings.