Wednesday, May 8, 2019 10:11 am

It's been a 13 year gap since the last time the Cannon County Lions baseball team reached the District 8-AA tournament championship and the Lions not only reached the title game but if they win tonight against Smith County in Carthage, they will claim the championship for the first time in school history.

The Lions are playing their best baseball of the entire season in the district tournament.

To reach the championship game tonight, they dismantled a Macon County team for the second time in four days in the bracket championship game Tuesday night 8-3.

Jacob Raines hit a solo shot out of the park as the game winning RBI while Garret Alexander dealt another fine pitching performance on the mound to help Cannon advance not only to tonight's game but also to give them an automatic region tournament berth, their first since 2006.

Alexander almost pitched a complete game however he got in a little trouble due to his pitch count being over 100. With the Lions leading 8-2 and two outs, Alexander loaded the bases before Zach Basham came in in relief and got the final out.

Basham will get the start today on the mound in Carthage. Game time is at 4:30.