It’s easier to be aggressive when you’re having fun.
That’s the vibe you get these days watching the Starkville High School baseball team.
Earlier in the season, coach Travis Garner didn’t see a squad having much fun in losses to Brandon, Clinton, and West Lauderdale. Class 6A, Region 3 losses to Northwest Rankin and Madison Central followed and dampened the team’s confidence.
“For lack of a better word, we haven’t played the game the way we want to play the game because of who we were playing,” Garner said, “so we kind of talked about let’s just play baseball. Let’s play the game and regardless of what the other team does, if we play our game we’ll be all right.”
But a change is brewing in Starkville.
Buoyed by a one-hitter by Colbey Rivers and a balanced attack in which all nine starters had a hit, Starkville rolled to a 15-0 victory against Columbus in five innings on Wednesday in a Class 6A, Region 3 game at Sammy Fletcher Field.
The win helped Starkville (7-11, 1-4 region) improve its chances at earning a playoff berth. The top three teams in Class 5A and Class 6A advance to the postseason, and with Northwest Rankin and Madison Central already in the lead in the region, Starkville and Columbus could fight it out for the final playoff spot.
If you watched Starkville play, though, it doesn’t appear the Yellow Jackets are going to settle for anything. Instead, Garner feels his team could be hitting its stride, especially after it played well in a victory against Choctaw County and a loss to Brandon on Saturday and it defeated West Lowndes 10-5 on Monday.
“We just have been playing real tight and letting all of the pressure get to us,” Rivers said. “When he says ‘turn it loose,’ he has all the confidence in the world in us and we can just go out and play the game like we know how to play.”
Aggressiveness is a big component of Starkville’s new-found energy. Leading 3-0 in the first, Garner called for J.D. Taylor to steal third base with Ben Burrell up. Some teams wouldn’t have dared call a double-steal with two outs because it might not have worked out, even though Columbus left-hander Bryan Ezell was deliberate to the plate. But the decision worked, as Taylor slid in safely to third and the runner from first base moved up to second. Burrell followed by reaching out for a 2-2 pitch and delivering a bloop double to left-center field that made it 5-0.
“I told the kids, and this sounds funny, but I had the opportunity to go watch a little kids’ game, when they are 6 or 8 years old and they just run around playing,” Garner said. “I told the kids you just need to go back to like that. The coaches aren’t going to say anything to you. I said, ‘turn it loose and have fun.’ From Monday to today, it is just a totally different club. They are out here having fun. They are not worried about screwing it up. When you give these kids the freedom, we’re a pretty good ballclub. They have to figure it out, and I think they are starting to see it in that they have a chance to be pretty good.”
Starkville continue to apply the pressure. In the fourth, Rashon Tate capitalized on a ball in the dirt and beat a good throw to third base. One out later, he scored when Rivers busted it out of the batter’s box and earned a standing double. When Rivers hit the ball to left field, Garner could be heard yelling “run” to Rivers.
“We’re getting there,” Garner said. “We still have only have three seniors. It is a still a bunch that is pretty young. They’re learning. My biggest fear was throwing them through the gauntlet 10 games into the year and we kind of were a little shell-shocked. Now we have tasted a little bit of success and we’re kind of turning the corner a little bit.”
AJ Brown, Tate, Tyler Barnes, Rivers (two), Taylor (two), Burrell (two), and Will Murphree had RBIs in a 15-hit attack. Demetrius Petty and Will Prewitt added hits. While Starkville broke the game open with a seven-run first inning, Rivers worked through a couple of hiccups in the first four innings. The right-hander worked around two walks in the third and in the fourth. Barnes, the left fielder, kept Rivers’ no-hitter intact in the fourth by making a fine catch tracking a deep fly ball by Robert Woodard Jr. that took him all the way to the fence.
Rivers struck out the first two batters in the fifth before Dee Rieves broke up the no-hitter with a hard smash past the third baseman that went for a double.
Rivers said he sees a big difference between the Starkville team in the past few weeks. He feels the team has continued to compete, but he said everyone is showing more energy in part because it feels like Garner has more confidence in them.
“Everybody is just having fun,” Rivers said.
Rivers said he can feed off that energy when he is on the mound. He said he has all of the confidence in the world in his defense, so his job is to throw strikes. He said he had to clear his head a couple of times after walking batters, but he told himself he knew he could do it, which helped him regroup.
Unfortunately, Rieves broke up Rivers’ no-hit bid by rapping a curveball down in the zone for the Falcons’ only hit.
Starkville will try to gain the tiebreaker against Columbus when the teams play at 3 p.m. Friday. Each team in the region plays each other three times.
“We played a very tough schedule, probably too tough looking back on it, but the fact is we’re still here,” Garner said. “If we can put it together for 10 days or two weeks, we have a chance to make a little noise.”
Like Garner, Rivers is anxious to see how Starkville’s energy and have-fun attitude translates against Northwest Rankin, Madison Central, and the rest of the teams on its schedule.
“If we come out and play like this against those teams, really nobody can stop us,” Rivers said. “Coach says it all of the time, we’re a good club. I think we are finally coming around and seeing that we are.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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