No matter which fan base you might be a part of, the glaring stat line from the first meeting this season between rivals Petal and Oak Grove was the errors.
The Panthers took full advantage of the Warriors’ nine errors as Petal came away with a 7-3 victory on Tuesday night at Harry Breland Field.
“It was very uncharacteristic of our team,” Oak Grove coach Chris McCardle said. “We hadn’t played this way all year long.
“We only have one senior that starts. None of them have ever played in this game before except the senior. They just need to come and play baseball and not worry about who we are playing and worry about what we do. We didn’t do that. It was terrible. You can’t beat anybody with nine errors. That says it all.”
Despite having committed two errors by the second inning, Oak Grove jumped out a 2-0 lead. Petal’s starting pitcher Eli Waters struggled early on as he walked the leadoff batter and then threw a wild pitch, which moved the runner to second base. The Warriors then rattled off three straight hits, with Gage Thompson hitting an RBI single and Elite Wheat latter following with an RBI double.
However, Petal (8-1, 1-0) responded with Jeremiah McKinney leading the top of the third off with a solo home run over the left field wall to narrow the score to 2-1. The Panthers’ offense maintained the momentum with a 4-run inning in the fourth inning, but two more errors by the Warriors aided that inning.
“I thought the key to the whole thing was us giving up a 2-spot in the second inning, and then McKinney answers backs,” Petal coach Jake Mills said. “You don’t have to get them all, but you have to respond. I thought they responded well.
“We took advantage of it, but at the same time, we had a crooked number up there as well. That’s not like us either. It was good to take advantage of it instead of just leaving guys out there (on base) and figuring out how to get it done.”
At the same, the errors by the Oak Grove (7-2, 0-1) defense hindered a strong performance from the Warriors’ starting pitcher Brodie Wedgeworth as the errors drove his pitch count up, which helped set up Petal’s big inning. The Panthers’ Keegan Giger drove in a run with an RBI single, Cooper Nash drew an RBI walk and Davis Knight delivered a 2-run RBI double in the inning to push the lead to 5-2.
In 3.1 innings of work, Wedgeworth allowed three earned runs off five hits, struck out five batters and walked three. Yet the right-hander threw 78 pitches, with 52 of those being strikes.
“I thought we battled on the mound as best we could,” McCardle said. “Wedgeworth threw a lot of pitches, but we made so many errors, and he got tired. It could have been a lot worse.
“He battled back. There was zero defense. There was no defense at all. We are trying to be perfect with our pitches, but every time they hit the ball, you just wonder what’s going to happen. It’s so uncharacteristic for us. We have been solid on defense all year.”
Like Petal’s offense, Waters also responded with three straight scoreless innings. By the end of the game, Waters allowed two runs off four hits, struck out eight batters, walked three and hit one batter in five innings of work.
“Eli has good stuff,” Mills said. “We talked in the dugout that you control where that ball goes, but after that, with defense and things like that, it’s ‘control what you can control.’ He did that after that. he settled in better and found the slider. Once he found control of that, he just had to pound the zone and keep hitters off balance and just fill it up.”
The Panthers added a run in the fifth and seventh innings, both of which were unearned, with a run scoring on a throwing error and then Cayden Burger scoring from a second base on a sac fly.
“That’s something (baserunning) we take pride in,” Mills said. “We are pounding something on baserunning every day. We free our guys up to tag from second base and score. We are looking to go 90 feet, and we take a lot of pride in it, and it showed up tonight.”
Oak Grove had opportunities to score more runs, which included the Warriors scoring a run in the sixth inning off an error. Yet Oak Grove stranded five runners on base in the last two innings of the game.
“We have got to get more timely hits,” McCardle said. “We have got to get the ball in play more. Waters is a tough guy to hit off of, but still, we had some opportunities there. We had an opportunity in the last inning, but we ended the game with two (strikeouts). That just can’t happen. You have to at least put it into play because you never know what will happen. You are two hits away from tying the game. We have to understand that. It’s growing pains for us, but we are going to get better.
“Tonight was one of the things that I would have never dreamed of happening as far as defense. You have to flush it.”
Petal will host Oak Grove on Friday at 7 p.m.
“We are going to enjoy tonight, but we have to get ready to go for Friday because it’s going to be another throwdown,” Mills said. “It’s one of these deals where we will enjoy it, but anytime you can get a division win, I don’t care who it is against. It’s big in this league.”
