ST. LOUIS – The Forest Park Highlanders captured the NJCCADivision II Central District/Super Regional Tournament Sundayafternoon at Sauger Field after beating the Copiah-Lincoln Wolves10-2.

Co-Lin (34-26) was the defending champ.

Forest Park (40-20) advances to the NJCAA Division II WorldSeries in Millington, Tenn., the week of May 26-June 1.

Going the distance for the was Kevin Moulder (7-3). Moulderrecorded 1 strikeouts, walked 3 and hit 1 batter.

Sophomore Josh Garrett (6-5) was the losing hurler with 1strikeout and 1 walk in 3 innings. Jacob Blakeney worked the next 3innings with 1 hit batter. Finishing out the final 3 innings wasChuckie Stracener with 2 strikeouts and 2 walks.

Forest Park led 1-0 until the bottom of the third when theyexploded for 6 runs and a 7-0 lead.

“They had a few balls that could have been caught,” Co-Lin headbaseball coach Keith Case said of the third inning. “Their grass ishigh and is slows the ball down. They hit 4 doubles and 2 singles.That is tough to get it.

“You have to tip your hat for Forest park. They came back anddid what they had to do to win it. That’s the way baseballgoes.”

Co-Lin scored 1 run in the top of the seventh to cut the deficitto 8-1 but Forest Park added 2 runs in the bottom to push its leadto 10-1. The Wolves scored 1 run in the top of the ninth.

“We didn’t come out of the thing with the win, but we putourselves in the situation to win in,” stated Case. “Our guysbattled through it. We were down 10-1 and our guys were trying topick up the other guys through the last inning.

“We became a true team, thats what got them to the level thatgot them.”

Powering the Wolves with a double and a single apiece were KyleBeall and Jason Miles. Collecting a pair of singles each wereBrandon Holleman and David Gray. Ryan Davis and Brett Duncan hitsafely.

For the Highlanders, Josh Hanewinkle and A.J. Otto led with adouble and a single apiece.

“We’re one of the last two Mississippi teams playing,” Caseexplained. “It hurts our guys to lose. It’s emotional taking thatuniform for the last time.”

There were times during the middle of the season when the Wolvesstruggled but when they had to win down the stretch, Co-Lin found away to do it.

“Our players and coaching staff expected us to go this far,”said Case. “We didn’t play well in middle part of the year. Weplayed well at the end. We kept battling and battling. We got hotat the end. The guys really had a good year. They are bunch ofclass guys. They classy wherever they went.”

Case says he loses a special group of sophomore players.

“We lose a super group of sophomores,” Case added. “They havewon two regionals and went to district twice. Our fan support wasunbelievable. It’s fun to be part of a group like this.”

@Linescore:FOREST PARK 10, CO-LIN 2

Co-Lin

000

001

001

–

2

10

3

Forest Park

106

012

00x

–

10

12

2

@Bbstandings: Garrett, Blakeney (3), Stracener (6) and Gray;Moulder and Davis. WP – Moulder (7-3). LP – Garrett (6-5).2B – Beall (CL), Miles (CL), Otto (FP), Hanewinkle (FP). Multiplehits – Beall (CL), Holleman (CL) 2, Gray (CL) 2, Miles (CL) 2,Hanewinkle (FP) 2, Otto (FP) 2.