Todd Stanley was pleased to see his offense fight back and tie things up in the middle of the game.
The West Lowndes High School baseball coach saw his team go down early, but to their credit, they fought back and got right back into the game.
But it didn’t last long. The Panthers committed six errors, including three in the fifth inning to allow the tie to slip away, and lost 14-5 in six innings to Ethel High School to be eliminated from the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 1A baseball playoffs.
“I was just telling them, you can’t don that in the playoffs and expect to have any kind of success,” Stanley said. “You’ve got to make the routine plays and we didn’t.”
The Panthers (7-10) lost 4-2 to the Tigers (18-5) Friday night on the road to lose the first game of the best-of-three series in round one. Ethel advances to play Sacred Heart in the next round.
Tied at 5 in the top of the fifth, things came undone for West Lowndes. Starting pitcher Fred Clark issued a leadoff walk, but struck out the next batter. But a routine flyball was not caught by right fielder Lemarrius Fair. After the error, Alex Schuster doubled home a run, followed by a two-run double by Blake McKinley.
An error by Melvin Crawford and an error by new right fielder Calijawon Johnson kept the inning alive and the Tigers scored eight runs by sending 12 men to the plate.
“Yes I kind of was because I figured we play a little better in the playoffs,” Clark said when asked if he was surprised by the defensive miscues.
Clark was lifted in the fifth after too many mound visits and he gave way to Octavian Stallings. Stallings, who allowed four run-scoring hits, got a strikeout and a groundout to end the frame, but the damage was done.
Stanley said defense has plagued them all season long and has been a problem.
“If we make the defensive plays we can play with anybody,” Stanley said. “We’re just inconsistent on defense. It’s probably because we do have a lot of freshmen, but that’s no excuse. We didn’t make the plays.”
Ethel jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first after West Lowndes committed three errors. The Panthers added a run in the home half of the inning on a Adolphus Brewer RBI double to cut the lead to 4-1.
The Tigers added a run in the third, but the Panthers scored four in their at bat to tie the game. Fair and DeKaylan Malone had RBI singles, while Jarquil Clark and Stallings drove home runs with fielder’s choices.
“I was proud of them for fighting back,” Stanley said. “We actually played harder in the playoffs than we did in the regular season. I was just telling them if they had done that all year long, we might not have been the three-seed. I was proud of them for fighting back.”
Clark said he felt like he could have done better on the mound to give his team a chance to win but he was pleased with his game-high three hits.
“He’s solid, he’s one of my better players and you know what you’re going to get out of Fred every day. He’s going to give you everything he’s got,” Stanley said of the junior.
McKinley, Schuster and Cody Weeks all had two hits for the Tigers.
Even Stanley made a miscue by subbing in Clark, who was already taken out of the game, as a pinch runner for an injured Malone in the fifth. The Panthers had runners on first and second, but the error in judgement became an out and it ended any momentum the Panthers had.
Although the offense did enough to help West Lowndes win, the play of the defense couldn’t be overcome. Clark, who has one more year, said it was tough to watch the game unravel that way.
“The only thing I couldn’t think about was this could be our last ride or suck it up and play and fight to the next round,” Clark said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.