By By Ryan Satcher / staff writer
April 17, 2002
Central Hinds Academy scored five runs in the first inning and held off homestanding Lamar to take a MPSA Division 3-AAA win over the Raiders 9-4 in Tuesday night baseball action.
The visitors used only three hits to bat around in the first inning and jump out to an early lead. Lamar had to play from behind and was unable to come back.
Cougar lead-off man Dustin Messina started the game with a sharp single to right and stole second. Chad Shelby followed with an infield hit and also stole second. Martin Long hit a groundball to first and Messina beat the throw home to make the score 1-0 and give Central Hinds a runner at first and third. Long stole second and the throw from the plate went into the outfield to allow him to move to third and allow Shelby to score. Long scored on a ground out by Paul Barlow.
It looked like the Raiders would get out of the inning as Monroe Mayfield settled down and got the next man to fly out. He struck out the next batter but the ball got by the catcher and Zack Riley reached first safely. It was a costly play because Matt Sykes followed with a double to right field to score Riley and make the score 4-0. Sykes moved to third on a steal before Billy Bishop struck out. The third strike once again got away from the catcher and the throw to first from home to get Bishop was in the dirt and bounced away. Sykes scored on the play and made the score 5-0. Mayfield struck out his third batter of the inning to get out of the inning with no more damage.
Lamar scored one run in the first inning when Parker Payne knocked in Mayfield from second with a nice two-out single. The Raiders left two runners stranded in the second inning and still trailed 5-1 after two innings of play.
The Cougars stretched the lead with two runs in the third inning. Messina came through with a two-out single to knock in two runs and make the score 7-1.
Mayfield reached base in the third for Lamar when his pop up fell between everyone in the middle of the infield. Zach Moore followed with a single. Payne knocked in Mayfield with a ground out to second. David Haggard hit a hard ground ball that took an awful hop to get over the shortstop and knock in Moore to make the score 7-3.
That would be as close as the Raiders would get, however. The Cougars added a run in the sixth inning on a ground out by Barlow. They also scored a run in the seventh when Sykes and Bishop hit back-to-back doubles.
Lamar was able to score a run in the bottom of the sixth. J.D. Henderson singled and later scored on a ground out by Nick Lisi.
Barlow pitched the complete game for the Cougars to pick up the win. Mayfield took the loss for the Raiders. Lamar will travel to play the Cougars in a doubleheader on Friday. The Raiders need to win both games to help keep their playoff hopes alive.