Heritage Academy’s baseball team delivered a strong performance Tuesday night in the opening game of its Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) Class AAA North quarterfinal series against Indianola Academy.
Heritage junior pitcher Blayze Berry, a Mississippi State commit, struck out 11 and gave up just two hits over seven innings, leading the Patriots to a 4-0 win in the game played in Indianola.
The Patriots play host to Indianola in Game 2 on Thursday night.
The Patriots put together an eight-hit attack to back up Berry on the offensive side. They scored single runs in the fourth and seventh innings, and two runs in the sixth.
Banks Hyde and KJ Smith each had two hits for Heritage. Cole Ketchum drove in two runs.
Joshua Hill, a Mississippi State commit, had the only two hits for Indianola. He was also the starting pitcher, and went 6.2 innings. His fastball has been clocked at 89 mph.
The series is a rematch of the AAA championship series in 2018 won by Indianola in two straight games.
In addition to Heritage’s playoff game on Thursday, New Hope begins its best-of-three playoff series against Amory.
New Hope advanced in the MHSAA 4A playoffs by defeating Caledonia.
Paul Bowker is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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