By By Austin Bishop/Special To The Star
April 21, 2001
The Lamar School Raiders saw their hopes of making the MPSA AAA playoffs get crushed on Friday night, when visiting Central Hinds Academy banged out 19 hits to take a 19-6 win in the second game of a doubleheader at Jim Wall Field.
Lamar had come from behind to take a dramatic 9-5 win in the first game of the doubleheader, but the second game loss dropped the Raiders to 4-4 in division play and ruined their playoff hopes.
In Yazoo City on Friday Manchester swept two games from Copiah Academy to clinch the league title with a 7-1 record. Copiah dropped to 5-4, but even if Lamar beats Manchester on Tuesday the Raiders and Copiah will be tied and Copiah would take second place because the Colonels beat Lamar in two of three games this season. The top two teams in the division advance to the playoffs.
Central Hinds scored four runs in the top of the first in the second game and never trailed.
After Lamar cut it to 4-2, CHA stretched it to 6-2. The Raiders then cut it to 6-4 in the second, only to have the Cougars score two times in the third and two more in the fourth to make it 10-4.
The Raiders, now 14-8 overall on the season, cut it to 10-6 with two runs in the fourth. Lamar had a chance to cut even deeper into that lead when Drew Moffett and Justin Brewer singled to lead off the fifth. But a pop up on the infield, a strikeout and a grounder to third ended the threat for Lamar.
The Cougars put the game away with nine runs on eight hits in the sixth to go ahead and win by the run rule.
Taylor Mellon had four hits in the game for Central Hinds, while four others had three hits each.
Ryan Satcher had three hits in the second game for Lamar, while Jeff Knight had a single and double and Justin Brewer had two singles.
It looked like CHA was going to win the first game as well, as the Cougars starting pitcher Brian Martin had a no-hitter going into the bottom of the fifth inning.
With Central Hinds leading 5-0 at the time, Martin walked the first three batters in the fifth and was removed from the game. Justin Brewer then picked up an infield single to knock in a run and Satcher delivered a sacrifice fly to help Lamar cut the CHA lead to 5-2.
The Raiders then scored seven runs in the sixth on just three hits to take the 9-5 win. David Haggard (2-0) picked up the win in relief for Lamar.
The Raiders used three walks and two errors to score the first two runs in the sixth and cut it to 5-4. Brewer then singled in the tying run and Satcher drew a bases-loaded walk to put Lamar up 6-5. After Moffett scored on a wild pitch, Jared McKee delivered a two-run single to give Lamar the cushion it needed.
Lamar had only four hits in the game, with two of those being singles by Brewer.
The Raiders return to action on Monday when they play host to AAAA power Jackson Prep at 6 p.m.