St. Aloysius pounds West Lowndes in Game 1|Prep baseball playoffs

Published 12:00 am Saturday, May 2, 2009

COLUMBUS — St. Aloysius made use of five errors by West Lowndes and kept the speedy Panthers off the basepaths in taking a 10-1 win in Game 1 of a third-round Class 1A playoff series Friday night.

If you go

Game 2: Today, 6 p.m.,

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at Bazinsky Field

Game 3: Monday, 6 p.m.

at West Lowndes

(if necessary)

The Flashes (23-3) can wrap up the series tonight with a Game 2 win at Bazinsky Field starting at 6 p.m. If West Lowndes (20-7) can extend the series, a Game 3 will be played back in Columbus on Monday.

That might be a tall order, considering the Flashes knocked out West Lowndes’ ace by the fifth inning and their own ace, Stephen Evans, struck out 10 in six innings of work.

St. Al coach Clint Wilkerson preached to his team to avoid being overconfident.

“That is a dangerous team. They can run and they use this slow, grass infield to their advantage by being able to beat out groundballs. But we able to shut down that game because Stephen attacked their batters. He attacked the zone well,” Wilkerson said.

Evans overcame his only difficult inning in the third by going back to his favorite pitch.

“I call it my 12-6 and I was able to use it more. When coach came out to the mound, my pitch count was already at 35. After that, I got ahead and they didn’t handle the curveball very well,” Evans said.

The Panthers strung together three straight hits against Evans in the bottom of the third inning to account for their lone run. With Mississippi Valley State signee D.Q. Farmer on second and Devin Malone on first, West Lowndes had its speed on base, but Evans came back to strike out three straight to end the threat and keep St. Al ahead 4-1.

The Flashes then struck for one run in the fourth inning and five more in the top of the fifth to give Evans a 10-1 cushion as West Lowndes’ defense fell apart.

Evans started the fifth-inning assault with a leadoff double and scored on Sean Weaver’s single. Corey Jones then tripled to left to make it 6-1. Farmer, who was now on the mound in relief of starter Clark McCollum, walked two batters to load the bases.

With two outs, Farmer looked to be out of the inning when he got Pierson Waring to hit a fly ball to center. Ryan Stowers, however, misplayed the ball and two more runs scored. Waring later scored on another error.

West Lowndes coach Todd Stanley said the five errors were a season high.

“That was the worst we’ve played defensively this year. I was very disappointed. We made mistakes and St. Al made us pay. At least we’ve got arms left,” Stanley said.

The Panthers will send Tyquan Lucious to the mound in Game 2. He has a no-hitter against Mt. Olive and a 2-0 win over Edinburg to date in the playoffs. But McCollum is the team’s ace. In Game 1, he lasted just four innings and allowed seven runs on eight hits.

“We hit the ball hard and I think Corey Jones’ triple broke the game open,” Wilkerson said.

St. Al had 12 hits in all and the Nos. 4-6 hitters — Evans, Sean Weaver and Jones — were a combined 7-for-10 with three doubles, a triple and four RBIs.

Weaver led the Flashes with three hits, including an RBI single in the second that keyed a three-run rally. Jones had a double and a triple, while Evans had a single and a double.

Malone had two hits to lead West Lowndes.

“We’re swinging and pitching pretty good right now,” Evans said.

*

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com