LCHS Cougars crush Sumrall
Published 6:00 am Tuesday, March 2, 2004
PETAL-The Lawrence County Cougars defeated the Sumrall Bobcats13-4 Saturday night in the closing game of the week-long, butrain-hampered, Petal Invitational Tournament.
In a game that featured two teams that made it all the way tothe south state finals in their respective classifications lastyear, Lawrence County scored seven times in the top of the sixth tosecure a win. LCHS had originally earned a 6-0 lead, only to seeSumrall close the gap to 6-4.
With the win, Chris Clark’s Cougars improved to 1-3 on the youngseason. Clark, whose team started a promising season with threelosses to some very stiff competition, was happy to see his clubearn win number one.
“I’m not worried about our won-loss record,” Clark said. “If Iwas, I wouldn’t have scheduled a lot of the teams I did. Thewon-loss record in your division is all that really counts. Still,I’ll admit it’s good to get that zero off our record.”
Lawrence County hurlers Klein Harbour and Marty Ballard rackedup 12 strikeouts against the Bobcats. In six innings, Harbourallowed four runs on five hits, and struck out nine. Ballard cameon in the bottom of the seventh and struck out three of the fourbatters he faced, walking one.
In a strange first inning, the two teams combined for five hits,but failed to tally a single run. Lawrence County’s Trent Hartzog,Marlon Stanfield, and Klein Harbour led off the game with singles,but were left stranded by a strikeout, an infield pop-up, and aground out.
In the top of the second, the Cougars’ Brent Fraysier was hit bya pitch to start the inning. He came around to score an unearnedrun without the benefit of a base hit.
With Harbour shutting down Sumrall hitters, it remained a 1-0game through three innings.
In the top of the fourth, LCHS took advantage of Bobcat miscuesin putting up five runs. Freshman second baseman Joseph Evans had abig, two-run single in the inning and Harbour added an RBI hit. TheCougars led 6-0.
Sumrall responded with two unearned runs in the bottom of thefourth, cutting the lead to 6-2. In the fifth, the Bobcats puttogether three hits and two more runs to cut the Cougar lead to anuncomfortable 6-4.
In danger of starting its season 0-4, Lawrence County respondedby blowing the game open in the top of the sixth. Hartzog had anRBI double in the frame and first baseman Casey Williams added atwo-run single. The big blow came off the bat of freshman NickJackson. In only the second at-bat of his varsity career, Jacksonlaunched a three-run homer over the right field wall to secure theCougars’ first win of the campaign.
“We’ve had some young guys to make some major contributions,”Clark said. “Both of our middle infielders tonight (Hartzog andEvans) were freshmen and Nick had the big swing that put the gameout of reach. Our freshman class should help us to be competitivefor years to come.”
Lawrence County played without the services of thirdbaseman/pitcher Luke Watts, and catcher Jake Russell. Both werenursing injuries to their left wrists.
The Cougars will open Division 6-4A play Tuesday night when theyhost Jim Hill. That will also be the home opener for LawrenceCounty.