Brandon shocks favored Mudcats at USSSA tourney|[7/2/06]

Published 12:00 am Sunday, July 2, 2006

Brandon’s Devin Wilson had an all-star tournament game to remember Saturday. Wilson drove in five runs on four hits and picked up the save as the Brandon Black Sox eliminated the Vicksburg Mudcats with an 11-4 win in the USSSA State All-Star Tournament at Halls Ferry Park.

Brandon, which lost 7-2 to the Mudcats Friday night, advanced to face Oak Grove in today’s semifinals of the 10-year-olds’ division. The Mudcats, who went 2-0 in pool play to gain a No. 3 seed, will focus on next week’s Cal Ripken State Tournament which begins Friday at Halls Ferry.

&#8220We’re qualified to play in both tournaments but we are focused on next week’s tournament,” said Mudcat coach Jim Leech. &#8220The USSSA Tournament is bonus for us. We wanted to win it and I felt like we had a lot of pitching to do it. We didn’t run out of pitching. We just had too many mistakes and didn’t get the timely hits.”

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It was actually a diving catch by Wilson, playing in center field, that kept the Mudcats from breaking a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the fourth. Steven Busma hit a high fly ball that was headed to the alley in left-center but Wilson reached out to deny a sure double.

The catch was big because the next two Mudcat batters, Chipper Leech and Jonah Masterson, belted hits to put two on and in scoring position at third and second. Brandon pitcher Jeremy Polk escaped from the jam by getting a pop out to short and then a strike out to leave Leech and Masterson stranded.

Brandon coach Jay Brooks’ strategy of saving Polk for the main draw paid off. It also helped that his hitters had seen Mudcat reliever Alex Thomas the night before.

&#8220We kind of took our chances with them Friday night by not pitching Jeremy. We didn’t want to be an 8 or 9 seed but we also didn’t want to pitch our best guys like Jeremy and Devin in the seed games,” Brooks said. &#8220We got to see their three main pitchers in Friday’s game and it helped us get on top of them in this game.”

An error to start the Brandon fifth set in motion the Black Sox’s four-run at-bat. Brandon was able to load the bases with one out, bringing up Wilson who had earlier driven in his team’s first two runs on a pair of hits.

Wilson belted a 2-1 offering into deep center, scoring two runs to snap the 2-2 tie. A third run came in after a Mudcat throwing error and Wilson lumbered into third. He then scored on Polk’s ground out to right field for a 6-2 lead.

The Mudcats got a run back in their half of the fifth when Thomas doubled and then scored on Curtis Ross’ grounder.

Brandon then expanded the lead in the sixth to 11-3.

Leech got the Mudcats out of the Brandon sixth with three straight putouts and then knocked in a run with his second hit of the game to make for the 11-4 final.

Wilson finished 4-for-4 to lead Brandon. He had an RBI single in the first following a double by Jackson Wood and then added an inside the park home run in the third.

The Mudcats got their first two runs off Thomas’ RBI double in the second and Michael Rohrer’s double in the third.

In the 8-9 play-in game, Picayune rallied from a 6-5 defict to beat the Vicksburg Titans 22-7.

East Miss. 9, V’Burg Patriots 5.

The Patriots saw a 5-0 lead evaporate as East Mississippi reliever Brandon Miller tossed four innings of scoreless ball to send his team into today’s semifinals against Clinton.

East Mississippi trailed 5-3 going into the bottom of the fourth but struck for six runs against a tiring Patriot starter in Lee Middleton.

&#8220We had Lee come out throwing change-ups and it worked for awhile but East Mississippi is such a good team that they eventually adjusted to it,” said Patriots coach Charles Camillo.

J’mar Smith keyed the East offense with three hits, including the first out of the park home run of the tournament.

Drake Dorbeck went 2-for-2 and drove in three runs including a two-run single in the first to give the Patriots a 2-0 lead.

Vicksburg team takes second at USSSA event.

Vicksburg 12-year-olds’ all-star baseball team finished second in a USSSA Tournament at Madison. The team lost to Oak Grove 6-4 in the championship game.

The team went 2-0 Friday night to finish first in their pool, then defeated Brandon, 15-0, and Picayune, 10-9, before losing in the finals.

On Friday, the team defeated East Mississippi, 17-5, and Mantachie, 11-0.

The second-place finish allowed the team to qualify for the USSSA World Series.