Dewayne Sims ran in the first score for Vicksburg giving the Gators a 1-0 lead heading into the second inning against Clinton Friday night.

The Arrows would subsequently hold the Gatos without a run in the second and third innings for a final score of 20-5. The game was called after four innings.

“I like how the guys came out,” Clinton coach Trave Hopkins said. “I like how they ran the bases, the defense was good. Dawson Walters, that was his first time pitching high school, that was his first high school win. I was extremely proud of how he was attacking the zone, moving around and mixing up pitches.”

En route to Clinton’s overbearing win, it only committed one error off of 14 hits and also stole four bases. However, the Gators committed five errors on two hits.

After being up 9-1 through the first three innings, the Arrows put the game away scoring 11 runs. During this stretch Mike Brown recorded two RBIs and made his way to third base after hitting the ball deep into the right field.

Majority of Clinton’s 14 clean and precise hits came once it found a sweet spot through the short stop into the left field and deep into the right center.

“I told our pitches ‘If you keep the ball low, you give yourself a chance but anytime you keep it belt-high on good hitting teams, they’re just going to hit the ball,’” Vicksbur coach Derrick DeWald said. “It’s tough, they’re averaging nine to 10 hits a game and they got 14 tonight. That’s the strength for them, they can swing it.”

With Clinton finding repeated success booming the ball into left field, the Gators had problems scooping up groundballs, which lead to the Arrows earning better on-base position.

Vickburg walked foru players after pitches connected to the lower body and back in the second, third and fourth innings.

Luck did find the Gators in the fourth inning as they stole home base four times to close out the game.

“I told my guys we need runners,” DeWald said. “We were able to get a base hit, a couple of walks, a couple of fast balls and we were able to score some runs.

“Our approach at that point was we’re going to take till we get a strike and after that you can swing away.”