Louisiana Outlaws shortstop Corey White, left, catches the ball while trying to tag out Vicksburg Heat’s Ryan Ferrington as he slides into second base during their 13-year-olds’ Governor’s Cup game on Saturday. Vicksburg Hurricanes second baseman Pierson Waring throws to first in an attempt on a double play as Greenville Heat’s Jeremy Jones slides into second. The Governor’s Cup will conclude today.(Brian Loden The Vicksburg Post)

[8/1/04]Lightning has been plentiful this weekend at the Governor’s Cup. Trey Prentiss helped provide a little thunder to go with it.

Prentiss, a Vicksburg resident, went 2-for-3 with a home run, double, and six RBIs Saturday to lead the Louisiana Outlaws over the Vicksburg Heat, 18-7, in a 13-year-olds’ game.

Patrick Anderson and Vicksburg resident Jared Ettinger had two RBIs apiece for the Outlaws, who drew 13 walks from four Vicksburg pitchers.

“Basically, it was another Vicksburg kid that they didn’t want that beat them,” Louisiana coach Mark Hicks said. “Last year, it was (Jonathan) Sweet. This year it was the Prentiss kid.”

Lightning forced last night’s late games to be suspended, and pushed the start of the game back more than two hours. In the second inning, another lightning delay halted play for about 20 minutes. When play resumed, the Outlaws exploded for five runs to take a 7-0 lead.

A pair of errors allowed one run to score, and Bobby Bryan’s RBI single made it 4-0. Prentiss followed with a three-run homer to left-center to give Louisiana the seven-run cushion.

“It was kind of shocking, because I just came back from a two-month vacation from Georgia,” said Prentiss, who is playing in his first tournament since returning to Vicksburg. “It fired up the whole team.”

Vicksburg rallied for three runs in the bottom of the inning two of them on a single by Jared Thames but the Outlaws put the game out of reach in the third.

Prentiss’ three-run double highlighted an 11-run rally that gave the Outlaws an 18-3 lead. The inning lasted more than 30 minutes, featured nine walks, three pitching changes by the Heat, and 17 batters by the Outlaws. Louisiana sent 12 batters to the plate before Jason Hicks popped up for the second out. The first out came on a sacrifice bunt by Blake Hynum.

Ettinger also had a two-run single during the inning, and Anderson had a pair of RBI singles. Truman VanVeckhoven added another RBI single.

“When they hit those two bloopers, that really demoralized out pitcher,” Emerson said, referring to a pair of bloop singles by Anderson and Ettinger that stretched the Outlaws’ lead to 10-3. “It was 7-3, then we had a couple of walks and those bloopers and it was 11-3.”

Vicksburg scored four runs in the bottom of the third, but it wasn’t nearly enough to make the game close.

Travis Thornell had an RBI double for the Heat, Sean Weaver had an RBI single, and Thames finished with three RBIs.