It was a confidence-boosting night for Oak Grove as the Warriors run-ruled Meridian 11-1 in five innings.
The Warriors’ pitching staff struck out 12 batters while the lineup took advantage of the Wildcats’ nine walks and posted seven hits.
“It was a good game for us,” Oak Grove coach Chris McCardle said. “We hadn’t played in a week. Everybody is anxious to get back out there. I’m proud of the way our guys fought. We got on the board early. Gage settled in and did a good job.
“We have to do a little bit more on offense when we get the opportunities.”
Despite the dominant win, McCardle still had critiques for his offense, which was most evident in the bottom of the fifth inning as the Warriors were trying to score the needed 10th run to end the game.
With bases loaded with no outs, Oak Grove (15-6, 4-4) struggled to plate the final run after Eric Booth Jr. struck out on a check swing, and then Sawyer Speights hit in a fielder’s choice. Luckily Evan Brewer was hit by a pitch to score the final run.
“I could tell that we need to be a little looser with guys on base,” McCardle said. “Speights hit the ball hard, and I thought Booth kind of got robbed on the check swing. I didn’t think he swung, but still, he should know better. Evan got in there and took one for the team. Really glad we got the run home so we could end it.
“We are not an offensive powerhouse yet because everybody is so young. We try to do too much at times with people on base instead of being who we are. We have to work on that if we want to go deep in the playoffs.”
Before the final innings, Oak Grove had two efficient innings at the plate that helped the Warriors jump out early.
In the first inning, Coy Clements got Oak Grove on the board with an RBI triple that drove in Gage Thompson, who was hit by a pitch. Booth hit an RBI double, with Speights hitting an RBI sac fly to open with a 3-0 lead.
“You always want to score early,” McCardle said. “It kind of calms everybody else down. It calms the pitching down. We had some good swings. We ran the bases well and played pretty good defense overall. It was a good overall game for us.”
The Warriors then put up a 7-run frame in the third inning, as Meridian (8-15, 1-8) struggled to find the strike zone, which started with Kaleb Lewis hitting an RBI single. Then with two outs, Oak Grove kickstarted its rally with Thompson drawing an RBI walk ,and Eli Wheat followed with a 2-run double. To close out the inning, Lewis scored on a wild pitch with Maddox Miller and Speights driving in runs with base hits.
On the mound, Thompson picked up his fourth win of the season, and in four innings, he allowed one run off four hits while striking out 10 batters and walking four.
“I was proud of Gage,” McCardle said. “That was only his second start of the year. We have been taking it slow with him over the course of the year to get him going. We have to get some other guys going before playoffs start, but overall, I thought we played really good.
“Pitching is one of the better things for us, but we have to do better with guys in scoring position and put more bats on balls and make the defense make good plays.”
Oak Grove will close out the regular season next week as the Warriors host Wayne Academy on Monday and Brandon next Tuesday.
“It’s the last couple of games of the regular season,” McCardle said. “We feel good. We have to get more guys on the mound next week and then try to get everything set up for the next week and see what happens.”
