The No. 12 seed Doyline Panthers lost a 4-3 heartbreaker to No. 5 Quitman in the second round of the non-select Division V playoffs Thursday at Quitman.
Doyline led 2-0 after five innings. Quitman scored three in the bottom of the sixth.
The Panthers tied it with a run in the top of the seventh. But the Wolverines won it on a sacrifice fly with one out in the bottom of the inning.
Doyline closed its season 14-14. Three of those losses were to 1-B rival Quitman, which improved to 16-10.
Doyline got off to a fast start with two runs in the top of the first.
Austin Arbaugh singled and scored on a two-out double by Cayden Mingo. Mingo stole third and scored on an error.
A single and two errors on hard hit line drives contributed to Quitman’s three-run sixth, per Doyline’s official GameChanger site.
Jonas Florence led off Doyline’s seventh with a single. He advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on an error to tie it at 3.
Doyline ace Noah Spears allowed five hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out six and walked two.
Spears ended his stellar junior season with an ERA of 1.40. He had 101 strikeouts in 75 innings.
Arbaugh had two of the Panthers’ five hits.