Brook, Loyd Star, Lawrence County bag wins
Published 8:00 pm Wednesday, March 14, 2012
MONTICELLO-For the second straight day, Lawrence County’s Jimmie Davis Park was the place to be for high school baseball on Tuesday. Day 2 of the 4-day Southwest Mississippi Spring Break Baseball Classic saw a total of 5 games, beginning at 10 a.m. and ending about 12 hours later. All 5 games featured area teams.
In the first game of the day, Loyd Star rode the standout pitching of southpaw Caleb Yarborough to a 7-0 win over Bogue Chitto. Game 2 saw Mendenhall score 3 runs in the last inning to grab an 11-10 win over Wesson. Next, hard-throwing Jessie Travis pitched North Pike to an 8-1 win over Loyd Star.
Host team Lawrence County handled Enterprise 9-0, as junior righty Hunter Stephens threw a 5-inning no-hitter. The final game of the night pitted two of the area’s top teams, with Brookhaven outlasting North Pike by a 6-1 margin.
Three more tournament games were slated for today, starting with a Bogue Chitto-South Pike affair beginning at 10 a.m. The tournament concludes with 3 more games on Thursday.
“We had a perfect day for baseball,” said host coach Cory Keyes of Lawrence County. “The weather was perfect, the crowds were great, and we had some good baseball. We’re just so excited to have all these out-of-towners on our campus this week.”
Loyd Star 7, B. Chitto 0
The story of the first game was Loyd Star freshman left-hander Caleb Yarborough. He allowed just 3 singles, walked only 1, and struck out a whopping 14 in the Hornets’ shutout of Bogue Chitto.
The Bobcats got only 3 baserunners past first base in the game.
Corey Funk and Brandon Canny led Loyd Star with 2 hits each. Funk drove in 3 runs. Seth Farmer, Cory Crowe, Brendyn Brister, and Yarborough also had hits.
Bogue Chitto got 2 singles from Brock Roberts. Hunter Ginn also hit safely.
Zach Avants started for the Bobcats, and was relieved in the fifth inning by Roberts.
Mendenhall 11, Wesson 10
In game 2, Wesson trailed Mendenhall 7-2 early in the game, came back to take a 10-8 lead, then saw the game slip away in the bottom of the last inning. It was the second straight tough loss for the Cobras, who dropped a 1-run game to Lawrence County on Monday.
Cullen Greer and Quentin Munn led Wesson with 2 hits each. Bailey Warren, Josh Smith, Alex Smith, and Jacob Fischer also got hits for the Cobras. Greer relieved started Mack Smith in the third, and suffered the tough-luck loss.
Mendenhall was led by Choc Hubbard, who got 3 hits. Josh Breaux, the fifth Tiger pitcher, was credited with the win.
North Pike 8, Loyd Star 1
North Pike flamethrower Jessie Travis limited Loyd Star to 1 run on 5 hits in the third game of the day. Travis struck out 3 in a 7-inning, complete-game effort.
L.D. Coney, Brady Badon, and Will Richardson had 2 hits each for the Jaguars. Dusty Brock, Austin Smith, Kelby Hart, and Kaleb Hart also had hits.
Four Loyd Star pitchers – Cory Crowe, Brandon Canny, Braden Smith, and Corey Funk -pieced the game together for the Hornets. Canny had 2 hits for the Hornets. Jones, Funk, and Seth Farmer also had base hits.
LCHS 9, Enterprise 0
At about 5 p.m., the host Lawrence County Cougars took the field against Enterprise in a game that was dominated by LCHS junior Hunter Stephens who allowed no hits and did not walk a batter in a 5-inning no-hitter. He struck out 4. The only Enterprise batters to reach base did so via a ground ball error and a mishandled strikeout.
“Hunter did a really good job,” Coach Keyes said. “He located well and didn’t walk a single batter. With a little luck, he could have had a perfect game.”
Lawrence County scored 4 in the first and 4 in the second, with much of the damage being done by hit batsmen and bases on balls. Matt Patterson led the Cougars with 2 hits. Will Jackson and Jordan McCaffrey also had hits. It was the Cougars’ fifth straight win after starting the season 0-4.
Blake Fugler, Austin Fuller, and Braxton Foster pulled mound duty for the Yellow Jackets. They were hurt by a total of 8 walks or hit batsmen.
Brookhaven 6, N. Pike 1
The final game of the evening and perhaps the best matchup of the 10 tournament games so far pitted 7-2 Brookhaven against 7-3 North Pike. The game lived up to its billing through 3 innings, as North Pike’s Jacob Fleming and Ole Brook’s Dillon Newell locked up in a pitchers’ duel.
In the top of the fourth, the Panthers got to Fleming, scoring 4 runs on 3 hits, taking advantage of 2 Jaguar errors. J.B. Perkins’ 2-out, 2-run single was the biggest blow of the inning. Houston Case also had an RBI double. Perkins followed that up with a sixth-inning, 2-run double.
Perkins’ 2 hits and 4 RBIs led Ole Brook. Case, Newell, Andrew Culver and Seth Porter also had hits. In 6 innings, Newell gave up 4 hits and struck out 7.
North Pike’s only run came in the fourth, when Austin Smith and Reed Taylor put together back-to-back base hits. Kaleb Hart and Anthony Durr also had hits for the Jaguars. Will Richardson relieved Fleming in that 4-run fourth. Together, that duo racked up 9 strikeouts.
“This was a good win against a very good North Pike team,” said Brookhaven coach Randy Spring. “I thought Dillon pitched well against a very strong North Pike lineup. Our hitters had their hands full with Fleming for three innings, but put together a pretty good inning in the fourth.”