By Staff
DOWN IN THE DIRT n Loyd Star's Jody Britt slides past the tag of Clarkdale's Thomas Walters to score a run for the Hornets Thursday. Photo by Paula Merritt/The Meridian Star
By Fredie Carmichael /Special to The Star
April 20, 2001
The home-standing Bulldogs took the first game of a best-of-three series with Loyd Star in front of the home crowd here Thursday night as they claimed the opener 5-2. Clarkdale got its biggest hit of the night from the ninth batter in the line-up and designated hitter-Corey Godwin- who ripped a 2-RBI double in the bottom of the fourth that broke open a 1-1 tie. That hit gave the Bulldogs (24-6) a 3-1 lead and would be all it would need.
Godwin's hit came off of the first pitch, a pitch that he had looked at for a strike in his first at-bat. Clarkdale Coach Roland Gatlin let Godwin have it after his first at bat, but the Bulldog batter responded. "I wasn't happy with his first time up because the (pitcher) had been throwing fast balls in there on the first pitch on our first eight batters," Gatlin said. "I told him that he should have picked up on that and not taken the pitch for a strike that led to the strike-out. But I love to see a kid respond the way he did and that hit was huge for us. You just can't say enough about how he responded like that."
Chris Moffett picked up his eighth win of the year on the mound for Clarkdale as he went the distance with a 12 strike-out, four-hit performance in seven innings. "Chris threw the ball extremely well for us tonight," Gatlin said. "He struggled a little to get his rhythm, but once he found the rhythm he was good to go. He got us out of a lot of jams tonight."
Moffett (8-2) gave up one-run in the first as Seth Britt busted a double to left that scored his brother Jody Britt and gave the Hornets the early 1-0 lead. But Moffett found his groove in the second as he struck out the side to get back on track. "That was probably the turning point for me," Moffett said of his second inning. "I had gotten off to a bad start but I was able to bounce back to strike out the side and get some momentum."
Mark Taylor doubled in the Bulldogs' first run as he plated Jeffrey Stokes to tie it at 1-1 in the bottom of the second inning. After a scoreless third, CHS got two-runs in the fourth thanks to Godwin's bases loaded double to right field.
Clarkdale landed its last two runs on the night in the bottom of the fifth. Stokes picked up both runs as he brought home Moffett with a crushed three-bagger to right before scoring from third on a wild pitch that made it 5-1 CHS.
Loyd Star got one more garbage run in the sixth on a passed ball, while Moffett whiffed five Hornet batters in the last two innings to close out the game.
Clarkdale was led at the plate by Sophomore Brandon Mabry who went 2-for-3 with a double and a single. Lance Miles was the only other Bulldog multiple hitter as he added two singles.
The Bulldogs hit the road today for a 6 p.m. game at Loyd Star to try and close out the series. "It's going to be tough on the road," Gatlin said. "We're just going to have to get the same effort that we got tonight if we expect to finish them off on their home turf."