Hartzog no-hits Mendenhall Tigers
Published 5:00 am Tuesday, March 13, 2007
MENDENHALL – Senior pitcher Trent Hartzog was nearly perfect asthe Lawrence County Cougars hammered the Mendenhall Tigers 10-0, in6 innings, in Division 6-4A high school baseball action Fridaynight. Hartzog threw a no-hitter, striking out 10 of the 18Mendenhall batters he faced, to improve his record to 2-2.
“Trent was outstanding tonight,” said third-year Lawrence Countycoach Cory Keyes. “He had excellent velocity, and great command ofall pitches. He overwhelmed a very decent-hitting team.”
A second-inning infield error and a sixth-inning hit batsmanresulted in the only 2 Mendenhall base runners. No Tiger got pastfirst base in the game, and the Tigers did not come close togetting a base hit.
With the win, Lawrence County improved to 9-3 on the season, and4-1 in Division 6-4A play. Lawrence County and Mendenhall willcomplete their home-and-home series, at Jimmie Davis Park inMonticello tonight.
Lawrence County scored single runs in the first and secondinnings, 4 in the third inning, then closed out the game, via the10-run rule, with 4 more in the sixth.
“We swung the bats fairly well tonight,” Keyes said. “We had alot of production in the bottom of the order. That’s a good signfor us, because we’ve really struggled down there at times.”
In the first, Hartzog reached on a 2-out error, and courtesyrunner Ford Johnson scored on Mackenzie Woods’ double. In thesecond, the Cougars made it 2-0, as Brandon Middlebrook and MurphyPeyton both had hits.
Lawrence County took control of the game, with 4 runs in thefourth. Middlebrook’s booming 2-run double, and Dominique West’s2-run homer, accounted for the 4 runs. Two bases on balls and erroraided the Cougars’ cause.
In the top of the sixth, Hartzog and Peyton had singles, ZacharySummers a sacrifice fly, and the red-hot Woods smacked a 2-runhomer.