Flashes win crucial division showdown
Published 12:00 am Thursday, April 4, 2002
[04/03/02]The St. Aloysius Flashes slipped into the driver’s seat of the Division 7-1A title race on Tuesday, and Bogue Chitto gave them the keys.
St. Al (14-2, 6-1 division) rallied back from an early 3-0 deficit with the help of nine Bogue Chitto errors and avenged one of its two losses, 10-4.
The Flashes had nine hits, but none of their runs was earned. Charlie Amborn and Victor Segers each had two-run doubles, and Segers, Jason Brown and Aaron George each had two hits for St. Al.
“It was just like I told our kids, if you hit the ball hard and put some pressure on them, they’re going to make mistakes, and they did,” St. Al coach Joe Graves said.
The Flashes can clinch a playoff berth if Natchez Cathedral beats Bogue Chitto (8-3, 2-2) on Friday. St. Al can wrap up its second straight division title with a win at Cathedral on Tuesday.
“This puts us in the driver’s seat and everybody else has got to play catch-up,” Graves said.
The Flashes were the ones playing catch-up against Bogue Chitto, but they did it in a hurry.
The Bobcats took advantage of some early wildness by Brown to take a 3-0 lead in the top of the first.
Brown walked the bases loaded to start the game, then gave up a two-run single to Bogue Chitto shortstop Scott Edwards.
George, St. Al’s catcher, took a late throw from left fielder Walker Hengst and tried to get Bogue Chitto’s Lindsey Jackson at third. No one covered the bag and the ball sailed into left field, allowing Jackson to score to make it 3-0.
St. Al left runners at first and third in the bottom of the inning, but Bogue Chitto made sure that wouldn’t happen in the second.
A hit batter, a misplayed bunt and an error on a potential double play brought in one run and set up Amborn’s two-run double to right field to tie the game at 3-3.
Amborn scored on a botched fielder’s choice for the go-ahead run, and the Flashes never looked back.
Another misplayed grounder set up an RBI single by George, and a bobble on the play allowed another run to score. Segers drove in another pair with his double, and scored on a bloop single by Alex Frisbee to make it 8-3.
Bogue Chitto committed five errors in the inning and the Flashes sent 13 batters to the plate.
“(Bobcat starter Jacob Leggett) was pitching things to hit, and we didn’t make plays,” Bogue Chitto coach Carl Cole said. “We made a couple of other errors here and there, but we made every one of them we could make in the second inning. It was just one of those baseball things.”
Bogue Chitto cut it to 9-4 in the sixth, but Brown (6-0) shut the Bobcats down after his shaky start. He scattered four hits and three walks over the last six innings and finished with 11 strikeouts.