Victor Segers tags Enterprise’s Chase Raiford as shortstop Dan Muirhead backs up the play Tuesday. (The Vicksburg Post/MELANIE DUNCAN)

[03/05/02]Enterprise showed up at Bazinsky Field just 15 minutes before the start of its game with St. Aloysius on Monday, and it seemed the Yellowjackets’ gloves never showed up at all.

St. Al scored five unearned runs on seven Enterprise errors and Aaron George pitched a complete-game, three-hit shutout as the Flashes won, 9-0.

George struck out 11, walked none and drove in a run with a single, Victor Segers had a two-run triple and Dan Muirhead doubled and hit a sacrifice fly. Still, coach Joe Graves was unhappy with his Flashes (5-0, 1-0 Division 7-1A), who made three errors, had several baserunning mistakes and managed only two hits off of Enterprise pitcher David Russell in the first four innings.

“In a district ballgame, you’ve got to come to the field focused, a little mad at your opponent, and you’ve got to take it to them. Tonight, we didn’t,” said Graves, whose team hadn’t played since Feb. 23 because of bad weather. “We more or less laid back and let Aaron do the job … Now we’ve got to earn our respect again.”

Because of a school trip, Enterprise (1-4, 0-1) barely made it in time for the game and the lack of warm-up time showed in the first inning.

After George retired the Yellowjackets in order in the top of the first, St. Al leadoff hitter Blake Warnock reached base on a misplayed fly ball and scored on a double by Charlie Amborn. Amborn then scored when Enterprise shortstop Monti Crotwell made two errors on a grounder by Jason Brown by booting the ball, then throwing it away.

Russell got out of the jam without any further damage, however, and retired eight straight Flashes until walking Segers to start the fourth.

“You can not win a game making seven errors. That was the key right there. Our pitcher pitched well enough … ,” Enterprise coach Scott Leggett said. “All in all, errors killed us.”

George didn’t allow a baserunner until the third, when Chase Raiford blooped a one-out single to left. Raiford was thrown out trying to steal second, but George hit a batter, allowed another single and saw an errant pickoff throw by catcher Charlie Amborn sail into right field before he got second baseman Scott Sasser to ground out.

St. Al finally took control of the game in the bottom of the fourth, scoring three runs on three Enterprise errors. After that, the Flashes’ bats came alive.

George led off the fifth with a walk and Alex Frisbee delivered an RBI single to make it 6-0. The Flashes got four hits and three more runs to seal the game in the sixth, including George’s RBI single and Segers’ triple.

“Tonight, some of our kids were not coachable at the plate on hitting. It may be the cold, but I don’t think slow hands is because of the cold. We drug our hands through the zone, we dropped our hands and hit popcorn. Take away their seven errors and it’s a 3-0 ballgame,” Graves said. “I’m trying to be positive. Just like I told them, we’re positively going to work hard tomorrow.”

George struck out six of the last nine he faced.

“My fastball was working,” he said. “… I hit my spots, mostly.”