[06/27/01] It wasn’t youth or inexperience that hurt the Thunder against the Vicksburg Seniors it was errors.

With mostly junior varsity players on the field, the Thunder committed 10 errors in an 8-0 loss to the Seniors, who managed only five hits.

Both games of the doubleheader were shortened to five innings because of crowded schedules the rest of the week. Results for the second game were not reported.

“It’s not as much getting beat 8-0 that bothers me, it’s just that we didn’t have any effort, anywhere, the whole five innings. We just were not mentally in the ballgame, They didn’t hit the ball any better than we did,” Thunder coach Joe Graves said.

Seniors pitcher Chris Middleton shut down the Thunder, allowing just two third-inning singles and walking one. He also struck out four and helped his own cause with an RBI single in a four-run third inning.

Paul Gorney reached base four times for the Seniors on a double, two walks and by getting hit by a pitch, John Rohrer and Matt Middleton each had RBI groundouts, and David Stagg reached base three times and stole three bases.

Matt Middleton led off the game by reaching on an error for the Seniors, and scored on an RBI single by Josh McBride for a 1-0 lead.