CLINTON — All it took were two big innings to propel Starkville to a key region win.
The Yellow Jackets scored three runs in the first, one in the third, and two more in the fourth and held on at the end to beat Clinton 6-5 in the Region 2-7A opener on Wednesday night.
Starkville (6-2, 1-0 Region 2-7A) and the Arrows (7-2, 0-1) will meet again at Starkville at 7 p.m. Friday.
“Anytime you go on the road in our gauntlet of a region and get a win is big,” said Starkville coach Mark Monaghan. “It was a hard-fought game in a great environment against a great Clinton club that never went away and that’s our motto. Just not going away. We’re a young group with not a lot of pop up and down the lineup and just grind out at-bats and just not go away.”
Starkville struck first with three runs in the top of the first inning as Lucian Walker delivered an RBI single to right field to score Will Moody for the game’s first run. With the bases loaded, Bradley Cohen hit a sacrifice fly to left to extend the Yellow Jackets’ lead 2-0, and Kaden Wilson followed with a bases-loaded walk to take a 3-0 lead.
Clinton got on the board in the bottom of the first as Ethan Dodson hit a sacrifice fly to cut the Starkville lead to 3-1.
The Yellow Jackets extended their lead to 4-1 as Zay Spencer hit a RBI single to right.
Clinton tied the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the third as Tyrese Haggard hit a three-run double to deep center field.
Starkville regained the lead at 6-4 in the fourth as Jonas Coleman hit an RBI double down the first-base line and Spencer had a bases-loaded walk.
The Arrows cut the Jackets lead to 6-5 in the sixth on an RBI single to center by Parker Thames.
Tyson Knox (1-1) got the win on the mound for Starkville, lasting five innings scattering four hits, four runs (three earned), four walks and two strikeouts.
Coleman got the save on the mound for Starkville as he got the final two outs in the sixth on back-to-back fly outs and retired the Arrows in order in the seventh to seal the win. Cole and Will Moody each had two hits for the Yellow Jackets.
“We did a good job offensively of forcing their pitcher to throw strikes and we forced them to go to the bullpen early and took advantage of some opportunities with runners on base,” Monaghan said. “Jonas came up big with us late with it being his first time on the mound this year, so it was great to see him go out and compete. He’s going to be a big arm for us moving forward. We get these guys again on Friday, so tomorrow we got to clean up somethings, especially with our at-bats late in the game.”
Wes Ambrose took the loss on the mound for Clinton. Chad Bates had two hits for the Arrows.
“Seven free bags and 10 pop ups and that’s something we pride ourselves on not doing and when you do it you’re not going to have a good night,” said Clinton coach Sam Temple. “Give credit to Starkville, they had a great first inning and were able to hold onto it. We had a lot of opportunities just didn’t put anything together.”
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