On the precipice of its first baseball state championship, Starkville Academy finds itself searching for answers on how to slow down the offensive might of Brookhaven Academy after dropping Game 1 of their MAIS 4A Division III title series.
The Cougars (25-8) took command of the championship series Monday in Starkville with a 12-2 run-rule win over the Volunteers in six innings. Brookhaven hammered three home runs on seven hits and utilized eight walks and four hit batters issued by the Vols’ pitching staff. On offense, SA (26-11) was held hitless. At times throughout the game the Vols struggled to get outs and put a ball in play and all of it just fed into each other in the loss, head coach Justin Flake said.
“I think every phase of the game is affected by each other and you don’t really see it unless you experience something like we did,” said Flake, who is in his first year as the Vols head man. “When you make uncharacteristic mistakes in the field, obviously there’s a little bit more pressure on the offense to make up for that. Also the pitcher is affected by the lack of offense and bad defense around him and that forces him to maybe overcompensate. I think all phases of the game were impacted by uncharacteristic lack of offense and unforced errors on defense. I think it affected every phase of the game for us (Monday night).”
Brookhaven struck first with a run in the first inning then piled on three more in the fourth. A hit batter and a walk issued by Jack Northcutt got two on base for the Cougars and a fielding error during a flyout got the scoring started. Tucker Tarver followed up with a two-run single to break the game open. Caleb Authement hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning to put Brookhaven up 6-0 before the Vols finally broke through at the plate. A hit batter and four straight walks by Authement got SA on the board, and a sac fly by Blake Little scored another.
It was all the Vols could muster as Brookhaven doubled its score in the sixth inning by way of two home runs, a sac fly and a single to end the game.
“That’s one thing we knew, they don’t get cheated on their swings and they have a pretty long lineup of guys who can square it up,” Flake said of Brookhaven. “High school lineups, they kind of fall off at the back end and you can kind of navigate the bottom half of the lineup and breathe a little bit, but that’s a pretty long lineup they have with guys who swing it pretty well.”
Now the series heads to Brookhaven for tonight’s Game 2 where the Vols are looking for a way to tame the Cougars’ offense while getting back to winning baseball themselves. It’s not the first time this year the Vols have faced a 1-0 hole in an important series – in fact the occasion marks the third time this year. It happened against Lamar School and against East Rankin Academy and both times the Vols went on to win the last two games. Flake said his team is channeling the energy they used in those series to try and do it one last time.
“Our pitching is kind of structured to help us navigate a situation like this because we’ve been there with these guys who are going to be the next guys up,” Flake said. “The difference in district play is we had to go on the road and outplay our opponent for 14 innings in a doubleheader, so now let’s just go out and play them in seven innings and get us another day’s rest and let’s do it again. We’ve been here before in dropping the first game of a series and being able to respond. Been-here, done-that – it’s just a little bit bigger stage and different circumstances.”
If needed, Game 3 will be played at Starkville Academy at 6 p.m. on Friday.
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 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
