OAK GROVE — The Lawrence County Cougars defeated the SouthJones Braves 18-4 in high school baseball action Monday afternoon.Lawrence County broke open a 1-1 tie with an eight-run outburst inthe top of the fifth and piled on more runs en route to the blowoutwin.

With the win, Chris Clark’s Cougars improved to 3-8 on theseason. South Jones, under Rusty Phillips, fell to 3-7. The Braveswere coming off of quality wins over West Jones andHattiesburg.

For Clark, the game shined a ray of hope on the Cougars’disappointing start to the 2004 season. LCHS returned sevenfull-time or part-time starters from the 2003 club that won 22games and advanced to the south Mississippi 4A finals.

“Only time will tell if this was a breakout game or anaberration,” Clark said, “but it was good to see. If we couldpitch, hit, and play defense at that level on a consistent basis,we can still have a very good season.”

Lawrence County banged out 17 hits in the end but the first fourinnings had the makings of another frustrating day for the Cougars.In the first three innings, the Cougars got five base runners intoscoring position with no outs and managed to plate just one run.LCHS then stranded two more in the fourth.

Despite all the base runners, the Cougars managed only a 1-1 tiethrough four innings, and had to thank starting pitcher KleinHarbour for that. Harbour pitched six innings for the win. Heallowed just one run on two hits through five innings beforeallowing three runs on four hits in

the sixth. Harbour struck out 11. Jonathan Stephens pitched thefinal inning.

Lawrence County’s first run came in the third, when MarlonStanfield and Trent Hartzog put together singles. The Cougars brokeit open in the fifth, putting together five hits, a walk, two hitbatsmen, and three Brave errors together for an eight-runrally.

South Jones finally got to Harbour to cut the lead to 9-4 in thesixth, but Lawrence County stretched the lead again in the top ofthe seventh. Hartzog had two of his four hits in that frame.Taebyus Smith whacked a two-run homer in a seven-hit, nine-runoutburst.

Hartzog’s four hits led Lawrence County. Stanfield added three,while Klein Harbour, Luke Watts, and Jonathan Stephens each got twohits. Smith, Casey Williams, Michael Thompson, and Jeremy Williamsalso hit safely.

Petey Thigpen, Chris Glaze, Matthew Crosby, Garrett James, ZackSullivan and Ryan Sanford had hits for South Jones. Sanford was thefirst of four Brave pitchers. He threw four quality innings beforerunning into trouble in the fourth.

Lawrence County returns to Oak Grove to play the host Warriorstonight.