Louisville, Forest drop series openers

By Staff
From staff reports
April 27, 2001
Both Louisville and Forest find their backs to the wall in the second round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association's state baseball playoffs as they lost series openers on Thursday.
In tonight's series openers, defending state champion Lake, 23-6, hosts Mercy Cross, 20-5, at 7 p.m., while Union, 21-11, hosts St. Aloysius, 20-2, at 6 p.m. in Class 1A games; and Philadelphia, 22-7, hosts St. Andrew's, 19-12, at 6 p.m. in Class 2A.
Pearl 5, Louisville 0: Louisville committed six errors in losing its Class 4A second-round series opener at Louisville.
Pearl turned three errors into two runs in the top of the first inning.
After that, Louisville's Jared Vaughn (7-4) retired 18 of the next 19 Pirate batters.
The Pirates, 30-7, added three insurance runs in the top of the sixth.
Louisville, 19-12, got a single apiece from Marquess Ledbetter, Chris Robinson, and Anthony Stanford.
James Cantrell had two singles for Pearl, while Mark Chisholm and Aaron Budlove both had a double.
Pearl finished with eight hits.
Game 2 in the series is set for Saturday at 1 p.m. at Pearl.
Greene County 12, Forest 2: The Wildcats took the Class 3A second-round series opener at Forest.
Chad McIlwain had three hits for Greene County, 26-10, while Lynn Simpson had two.
Elliot Burch homered for the Wildcats.
McIlwain (10-3) was the winning pitcher.
Mario Thomas (4-1) took the loss.
Game 2 is set for Saturday at Leakesville with a 7 p.m. start.