Missed pitch hurts Vicksburg in defeat
Published 12:25 am Sunday, March 4, 2012
BRANDON — Cameron Cooksey only missed on a few pitches Saturday. Unfortunately, one of his mistakes was a costly one that left the park.
M.J. Morrissette smashed a high fastball from Cooksey over the left field wall for a two-run homer in the top of the first inning, and Davidson (Ala.) added an unearned run in the seventh to beat Vicksburg High 3-0 at the Mid-Mississippi Classic.
“That’s two starts now that Cameron’s pitched, and he’s gone seven innings in both of them. He’s given up one earned run all year and that was the home run. He pitched an outstanding baseball game and he should be 2-0 in the scorebook, and instead he’s 0-2,” Vicksburg coach Ryan Grey said. “That’s part of baseball. We made a couple of young mistakes. But we played a pretty decent baseball game. We keep playing like that and we’ll win some games.”
It was a tough day for Vicksburg (1-3). Cooksey took the loss despite allowing six hits, five of them singles, and one earned run. He struck out seven and walked none. At the plate, the Gators managed only one hit — a single by Cooksey in the second inning — and hit into two double plays. They were robbed of at least three hits, however, by diving catches from Davidson’s infielders.
Davidson pitcher Keegan Curtis walked one batter and hit two, and allowed three balls out of the infield. Only one runner got past second base.
“We hit the ball solid, we just hit it right to people. We keep hitting it solid and things will go our way,” Cooksey said. “We were a little rocky a couple times, but other than that we played pretty well overall.”
In the first inning, Davidson’s hitters only took two pitches. Every other offering from Cooksey was either fouled off or put in play. Ryan Hughes hit the second pitch of the game to VHS shortstop Michael Rohrer, who was wild with his throw to first to allow Hughes to reach.
Morrissette took a ball, then deposited the next pitch over the fence for a 2-0 lead.
Neither team scored again until the seventh, when a bobbled grounder and wild throw by second baseman John Plummer allowed another run to cross for Davidson.
“It was supposed to be a low and away pitch, and I threw it up and away. He made a great hit on it, and if I’d have kept it down, it wouldn’t have happened,” Cooksey said of the homer.