LaFAYETTE — The Chambers Academy baseball team won Game One of the postseason series against Evangel Christian 15-0 on Friday afternoon. The game was stopped in the bottom of the fourth inning.

“We’re hitting the ball well,” Chambers Academy head baseball coach Dillon NesSmith said. “This is the best hitting team that I’ve had since I’ve been here. We’re averaging 12 runs the past four games, and you don’t expect to lose many ball games scoring that many runs. That’s what we harped on this year that we needed to score more runs. They’ve stepped up to the challenge.”

Chambers junior pitcher Caydon Smoot threw a no-hitter in the contest, throwing less than 50 pitches in the outing.

“It was awesome,” Smoot said. “We did what we had to do in practice this week, we got our minds right and we beat a team in the playoffs. It’s a good start, we just have to finish [on Saturday].”

Smoot blew threw the Evangel batting lineup with strikeouts and groundouts, as the only factor of making the shortened game last a few minutes longer is that the Rebels couldn’t punch in the game’s 15th run in the bottom of the third inning.

“It’s the type of stuff that we expect from our No. 1 pitcher,” NesSmith said. “He’s a bulldog out there on the mound and he’s a great kid. He controls the game, he controls the tempo, hits his spots, he’s very efficient, very accurate, his ball has a natural movement to it. He doesn’t have a lot of velocity, but there’s a lot of movement and he can just put the ball wherever he wants to. We expect him to continue to throw well. Our success is going to depend on his arm a lot for the rest of the playoffs.”

The Chambers Academy defense backed up Smoot well too, NesSmith said that senior second baseman Colton Hand made some big defensive plays to keep Smoot’s standout game intact.

Rebels senior Tommy Howell is scheduled to start on the mound in Game Two on Saturday.

The two teams braved out windy and rainy conditions to finish Game One, but after two more showers, Chambers Academy decided to postpone Game Two until Saturday at 2 p.m. EST. A Game Three, if necessary, will take place right after Game Two for a doubleheader to end the series.

A lot of Rebels on the baseball team may have a little extra motivation to eliminate Evangel early on Saturday after losing to the school by three points in the AISA A boys basketball state championship game earlier this year.

“I don’t know how many kids they have on their baseball team that played basketball, but I know our boys are going to remember it,” NesSmith said. “They’re competitors, they want to win in everything they do. If they get out there and play thumb wars, they’re going to try to get out there and win. Those are the type of competitors that we have. They don’t forget anything.”