Missy Gators’ late skid continues vs. Forest Hill

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, October 4, 2000

The good news for Vicksburg High is it’s playing like the New York Yankees heading into the final two weeks of the season and the playoffs.

The bad news is the Yankees have lost 16 out of 19, including their last eight. The Missy Gators haven’t fared much better.

VHS (14-12) dropped its eighth straight Tuesday against Forest Hill, a 14-3 drubbing in which the Missy Gators committed four errors, loafed after several grounders and got only four hits.

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“It’s frustrating for me as a coach, because it’s like I’m wasting my time and we’re wasting the school district’s money. We’re just not caring,” VHS coach Josh Harper said.

Forest Hill jumped out to a 6-0 lead after 11/2 innings and was never threatened. Emma Wilkinson’s two-run single in the first and Misty Musgrove’s two-run double in the second got the Lady Rebels going. VHS cut it to 6-2 after three innings, but a two-run double by Jessica Harrison and April White’s two-run single triggered a seven-run fourth that gave Forest Hill a 13-2 lead. VHS allowed 10 straight Forest Hill batters to reach base.

“When we played them last time, we didn’t hit that well,” Forest Hill coach Jamie Hemphill said, referring to a 20-14 VHS win on Sept. 5.

The Missy Gators, meanwhile, struggled at the plate. Krystal Lofton had a pair of singles and scored two runs, Dayna Nugent singled in a run in the fourth and Latoya Trunell delivered a sacrifice fly in the second, but VHS couldn’t stitch hits together.

“We looked like trees in the batter’s box,” Harper said. “Any time you can count softball hits on one hand, that’s embarassing.”

VHS has already clinched a playoff berth, but the recent swoon left Harper questioning how far the team will go once it gets there.

“They don’t know what they want to do,” Harper said. “And until they answer that question, it’s not up to me as a coach or to the parents. It’s up to the girls in the green uniforms.”