Wildcats’ season ends with Game 3 loss at Poplarville
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Greene County Baseball had a lot to celebrate this season, but not so much on Tuesday night as the Wildcats dropped Game 3 of their third round playoff series with Poplarville. The loss ended a stellar season for the Cats, which saw them claim the Region 8-4A regular season championship. Shown here is junior Noah McLeod celebrating with teammates after one of his three home runs hit during the best-of-three series. Photo by Russell Turner – Herald Editor
By STAN CALDWELL – Herald Correspondent
When a high school baseball playoff series reaches a deciding third game, pitching can be a roll of the dice.
Tuesday night in Game 3 of the Class 4A quarterfinals, it was Poplarville that rolled double-sixes.
A gritty performance on the mound from junior left-hander Braxton Sones, backed by an opportunistic offense led the Hornets to a 13-5 victory over Greene County at Hornet Field.
Poplarville (26-10) advanced to the South State finals against defending 4A state champion West Lauderdale, beginning Friday at Collinsville. Greene County finished its season 23-9.
“I was proud of the guys that threw tonight, but we did run out of pitching,” said Greene County Bray. “We gave up nine runs in one inning. If we put up a zero in that spot, we win 5-4.
“But you’ve got to give credit to Poplarville. They’re a good baseball team, well-coached. We wish them well moving forward.”
Sones pitched into the seventh inning, which was remarkable considering the way he started the game. Early on, it looked like he might not get out of the first inning, never mind nearly go the distance.
The first 10 pitches Sones threw were out of the strike zone, resulting in a pair of leadoff walks, and both runners came around to score.
Junior Zaire Moody and junior Eli Herring each drew four-pitch walks, then freshman Cam Pipkins went the other way to smack a run-scoring double into the gap in left-centerfield, with Herring moving to third. The second run came in on a groundout up the middle.
But Pipkins was tagged out at the plate on a hot grounder to first, and a flyout ended the inning. By then, Graeter had already gotten the Hornet bullpen up and moving, but it would prove unnecessary, until the issue was long decided.
With his top two pitchers burnt through the first two games, Scott Bray went with junior right-hander Noad McLeod to start, and he was solid in the first inning, and even got another run to work with in the top of the second.
“We’ve had three great games with them,” said Bray. “We were one strike away from taking the series (Monday night, in a 17-16 defeat at Leakesville). “We couldn’t get that last out. Then we had a chance in the bottom of the seventh, and couldn’t get that last big hit to get those two runs across. We were right there, one strike away.”
In the top of the second, junior Jaxon Denmark drew a one-out walk, then was forced out on a slow roller to first off the bat of senior Brody Jones, who stole second and scored on a double in the gap in right-centerfield by junior Zaire Moody.
“(Sones) was good,” said Moody, who led the Wildcats with two doubles and a single. “He threw us off. We’ve been seeing velocity all week, and all it took was that little change in velocity.
“He really dealt against us. He’s hard to get across on. We tried our best, but came up unsuccessful.”
McLeod ran into trouble in the bottom of the second, as control issues began to rise for Greene County. The Hornets scored four runs on just one hit in the second to take a lead they would never relinquish.
McLeod (1-2) finished the inning, but he wasn’t able to get an out in the third, as Poplarville went wild in the bottom of the third.
But Greene County still tied the game in the top of the third, when Pipkins reached on an error, went all the way to third on a botched pickoff, and scored on a wild pitch before Sones finished the next at-bat.
However, Sones pitched around a two-out infield single, and when he returned to the mound for the fourth inning, he had a nine-run lead.
Poplarville sent 14 batters to the plate in the third inning, scoring nine runs on just three hits, but five walks, two costly errors and two hit-batters. In all, Greene County issued 10 walks and four hit-batters.
“We’ve got to clean it up on defense to beat a team of this caliber,” said Moody. “You’ve got to be better mentally and better defensively.”
As was the case in the second inning, the Hornets loaded the bases on two walks, a single and a run-scoring hit-batter.
An error at the plate cost the Wildcats a force-out at home, and sophomore Camden McCurdy, in the 9-hole, drove in two runs with a bloop single into shallow rightfield.
“That one inning hurt us,” Bray said. “And that’s something we talked about briefly after the game. Take that away and it’s a different ball game.”
Junior Jackson Odom finally got Greene County out of the nightmare inning, and he teamed with Moody to keep the Hornets at 13 runs through the last three innings.
“They did a great job in a tough situation,” said Bray. “Both of them are juniors, so they’ll be back. So proud of them.”
Backed by the big lead, Sones settled in. He surrender a leadoff home run to McLeod in the fifth, and he had traffic on the bases in every inning, but two double plays erased baserunners in the fifth and sixth innings.
Sones (3-0) came out with two out and two on in the seventh, after throwing 121 pitches. He allowed five runs on seven hits, struck out five and walked seven. Freshman Dawson Amacker allowed a walk, but finished with a called third strike.
Despite the disappointing finish, Bray was happy with his team’s success in his first season back as head coach of the program he first brought to prominence in the 2000s, including a state championship in 2003.
“I’m very proud of our Wildcats and the year they’ve had,” said Bray. “It’s been an incredible season. We’ve had a great run, and we will be back.”
Indeed, Greene County only loses two seniors off its roster – infielder Brody Jones and outfielder/relief pitcher Austin Palmer – so the future looks bright for the Wildcats.
“We want to come back mentally stronger, and make the guys around me better,” said Moody. “I want to make sure that everybody has a clear head, and make sure everybody wants it.”
