LaFAYETTE, Ga. -- For a baseball team basically facing elimination from the playoff chase, the first inning of Thursday's game against Heritage couldn't have started any worse for LaFayette.
At 2-5 in Region 6-AAA coming in against one of the hottest teams in the league, the Ramblers found themselves down three runs before they came to bat. Those three runs came against ace left-hander Tripp White, who walked three consecutive batters before Riley Sparks' double cleared the bases.
That, however, would be the end of the bad news for the home team. The Ramblers scored the next five runs to pull out a 5-3 win that keeps them in the playoff hunt, at least for now.
"We still can turn it around," said White, who allowed just three more hits and struck out seven batters. "Everyone is in the race, and we're starting to peak at the right time."
LaFayette sent eight batters to the plate in the second against Heritage pitcher Sparks, scoring three runs on a single by freshman Mackenzie Kelehar, a wild pitch and a bases-loaded walk for Scott Bell. Kelehar, just recently inserted into the lineup to help turn around a struggling offense, knocked in the go-ahead run the next inning with a two-out single.
Bell provided insurace in the fourth with a solo homer to left, giving the bottom three hitters four RBIs and five hits.
"We definitely needed to have this," LaFayette assistant coach Dan Torrenti said. "We've put ourselves basically in the position to have them all. We played a lot of tough, tight games early and we couldn't find ways to win. Between hitting, pitching and defending, we couldn't get all three to work on a given night.
"It depends on what happens, but if we win out I would feel pretty good at 10-5."
Though White had only one 1-2-3 inning, he did not allow a General past second base in the final six innings in earning his third win of the season. He walked only one after the first inning.
"I was proud of Tripp," Torrenti said. "He felt he didn't have his stuff tonight, but that shows the discipline he has to battle back and win without his best stuff. "
Bowe Coffman and Josh Morgan joined Kelehar with two hits each to lead the 10-hit attack.