[6/11/03]Summer baseball is all about learning and development for high school teams.

St. Aloysius’ summer team the Vicksburg Thunder is no exception. With the loss of seniors at key fielding positions and the top four hitters in the lineup, head coach Joe Graves is using this summer to fill those holes for next year.

Graves said he’s looking for the players to mature and work on improving at their positions on defense.

A particular concern is the pitching staff, which will be completely revamped next season after losing its two top starters. It’s important for Graves to get a good look at several pitchers during the summer.

“I’ve got five pitchers throwing and learning this summer,” Graves said. “All five of those guys are going to have to come in next year and do something.”

Those five include Andy Wiles, Rob Jones, Kyle Richards, Drew Mazzanti and Jeremy White.

On Tuesday, Wiles started against East Rankin’s summer team, which also mixed in players from Pelahatchie and Brandon.

Wiles appeared untouchable for three innings, but a bizarre fourth inning that led to eight runs only two earned gave the Thunder a 16-9 loss.

If not for mistakes, the inning would have ended after only a handful of batters, but the Thunder committed three errors on routine plays to keep the rally alive for East Rankin. Eight runs and twelve batters later, the Thunder finally got an easy groundout to stop the bleeding.

“The whole momentum of the ballgame changed because of one bad inning of defense,” Graves said. “They were down 6-1 and we let them back in the ballgame because of the way we played. It wasn’t a bunch of what they did. They hit routine plays to us, we probably gave them ten outs instead of three.”

Wiles threw four innings, giving up six hits and nine runs three earned before he was replaced by Jones.

Jones got into trouble early in each inning he pitched, but managed to work his way out with minimal damage until the seventh inning when Jordan Toney hit a bases loaded single to knock in all three runners. Toney was then driven in on a fielder’s choice error as he escaped a rundown.

Jones pitched three innings, giving up five hits and five runs three earned with four walks and two strikeouts.

Richards closed out the final two innings. He allowed three hits and two earned runs.

“When you score nine runs, you should beat somebody,” Graves said. “But you can’t beat anybody making seven or eight errors.”

At the plate, the Thunder struggled against hard-throwing Nick Dilmore who finished with 14 strikeouts in seven innings.

Richards led the way with two RBI doubles. He finished 3-for-5 with three runs scored.