HAMILTON — First team to one wins.
Fortunately for the Hamilton High School fast-pitch softball team, two is the only number that matters.
After a 6-0 loss to Baldwyn on Friday night in game one of the best-of-three Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 2A North State playoff series, Hamilton will have to win two games Saturday to advance to the North State finals. Baldwyn will try to close the series with a victory in game two, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday. Game two, if needed, would follow approximately 30 minutes after the fist game.
Hamilton coach Bryan Loague said his team needs to do only one thing when it takes the field Saturday.
“There isn’t but one thing to do,” Loague said. “Your back is against the wall. You either lay down and die or come out swinging. We have the first at-bat tomorrow, so we’re going to come out swinging.”
Hamilton (14-15) will have to do a better job at the plate than it did Friday night. Sophomore right-hander Savannah Alexander limited the Lady Lions five singles. She walked none and struck out zero, but she used a high fastball to force Hamilton to make 12 outs by flyball or by pop out.
Loague said Alexander moved the ball in and out fairly well and received a lot of support from a speedy outfield that took two doubles away in the first four innings.
“I thought she did a good job hitting her spots,” Baldwyn coach Jessica Taylor said. “She had no walks. She had several batters with three-ball counts and she fought back. She also threw a lot of first-pitch strikes. When she throws first-pitch strikes she is really good and she stays consistent.”
Hamilton starting pitcher Lexus Jordan wasn’t as fortunate. The senior right-hander allowed eight hits, but a wild pitch and a throwing error in the fourth inning helped the Bearcats (19-12) score three runs and break up a game that looked like it was going to be a pitcher’s duel.
“We gained the momentum and we just kept it,” Taylor said. “We got runners on and we kept our head and kept our composure.”
Alexander added a clutch two-out, two-run single in the fifth to help break the game open. Paige Wood’s RBI single in the sixth accounted for the final run.
Meanwhile, Jordan had two of the Lady Lions’ five hits. Raimi Bryan, Myiah Dobbs, and Hailee Jones had the other hits. Hamilton failed to advance a runner to second base.
Loague said that won’t do Saturday regardless of which pitcher Hamilton faces. He said the Lady Lions need to do a better job of being disciplined at the plate and more focused in the field. He said the team made mistakes in the fourth that it hadn’t made since the beginning of the season. He said those things need to be corrected immediately if the Lady Lions are going to survive.
“We’ll show up a different team tomorrow,” Loague said.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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