St. Al puts hurting on Bogue Chitto

Published 12:00 am Saturday, March 13, 2010

Defending Class 1A state champion St. Aloysius won its fifth straight to open the 2010 season Friday night at Bazinsky Field, but coach Clint Wilkerson says his team must play better.

One immediate reason is that the Flashes’ schedule gets tougher beginning with today’s clash against one of the state’s perennial baseball powers, the West Lauderdale Knights. The Flashes (5-0) will meet the Knights, winners of 11 state championships under legendary coach Jerry Boatner, in Columbia at 11 a.m.

“This is something that just happened. Riverside dropped us and then we had a game with Raleigh rained out. Columbia was having a tournament down there and they got us a game with West Lauderdale. We actually played West in a four-inning jamboree and beat them, so I know he (Boatner) didn’t like that too much,” Wilkerson said.

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The Flashes got ready for the Knights, who won the 4A title last May over East Central, by pounding Bogue Chitto 12-2 in six innings. The Bobcats helped out by making seven errors, including three in right field.

“I guess you can feel good about being 5-0, but we need to be good when we step up and play the likes of West Lauderdale, Kosciusko, Louisville and Southeast Lauderdale,” Wilkerson said.

The Flashes will face Kosciusko, Louisville and Southeast Lauderdale in the Lake Spring Break Tournament which begins Monday in Lake.

The Bobcats, who lost 21-4 Tuesday at home to the Flashes, made it a better game this time, but were undone by the errors.

“Had they not made the errors, this may have been a 2-1 game,” Wilkerson told his team.

Four of the mistakes came in St. Al’s first turn at bat. A dropped fly ball in right and a walk put two on. Pierson Waring came in on a double steal to tie the game at 1. With two out and two on, Josh Eargle singled to right to score Justin Rushing and Regan Nosser for a 3-1 lead.

In the St. Al third, Eargle and Judson Gatling reached on errors and Brendan Beesley followed with a double to the left-center gap to make it 6-1. Beesley later scored on a fly out by Blake Haygood.

Nosser, who started, left after three innings. He allowed one run off two hits and struck out three. Reed Evans pitched two scoreless innings and Eargle finished up. He struck out four in the sixth inning, with one Bobcat reaching on a dropped third strike.

“We used three pitchers because we needed to give those guys get some work. This was a chance for them to pitch and some innings,” Wilkerson said.

St. Al led 9-2 going into the bottom of the sixth. Rushing reached on the Bobcats’ third dropped fly ball in right. Nosser then tripled to right to score Rushing. Eargle followed with his second hit of the game to make it 11-2. Waring then ended it with a double to left-center.

Eargle led the Flashes at the plate with two hits and three RBIs. Haygood and Beesley drove in two each.

Colton McClendon led Bogue Chitto with two hits and a run scored.

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com