HATTIESBURG – Even before Friday’s 7-4 win over Picayune, it was already a foregone conclusion the Hattiesburg Tigers would make the 5A playoffs. The berth was already clinched. From a pitching standpoint, are the Tigers ready for the playoffs?
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When the Tigers trot out senior Dexter Jordan to bump, they can beat almost anybody in the state. In fact, when Jordan toed the rubber against a nationally-ranked Calvary Christian team in the National High School Invitational last week, and Hattiesburg nearly pulled off the win.
Jordan is 4-1 on the season with a 1.53 earned run average. In 32 innings, he’s struck out 34 batters and walked 13 while only giving up seven earned runs.
Senior A.J. Stinson has proved to be a reliable No. 2 starter for Hattiesburg. His ERA sits a 2.82 through 27.1 innings, and he’s recorded 30 strikeouts to his 22 walks. He was the starting pitcher when Hattiesburg beat Mater Dei (California) at the NHSI, and he’s earned wins over rival Oak Grove and lowly Picayune. He also had a quality relief performance against Pearl River Central last week to help win the tiebreaker over Hattiesburg’s biggest competition in the region.
The point is, Hattiesburg has two solid starters as the postseason nears, and with a best-of-3 format in the playoffs, a quality third starter is needed. Besides Jordan and Stinson, no other pitcher has more than 17 innings under his belt this season.
“We have so many pitchers right that it’s hard to get them all a lot of innings,” Hattiesburg coach Joe Hartfield said. “Of course, we’re trying to be a little easier on Dexter’s arm this season because we know what he can do. He has proven it.
“At the moment, A.J. is definitely our No. 2 guy, and I think (senior) Joe (Gray) or (junior Landon) Rascoe are good enough to be the No. 3 guy. The other one could end up eventually being our closer.”
On Friday night, Rascoe showed he had the ability to take that step toward being the No. 3 guy, as he helped his team move one step closer to clinching the region title and a bye in the first round of the playoffs.
He pitched 4.2 innings while scattering three hits and giving up two earned runs. Rascoe also recorded eight strikeouts but he did walk five, including two in the fifth inning before he was pulled for senior Jay Reedy. Reedy pitched the next inning of no-hit ball with a couple of walks and a strikeout.
Rascoe has now strung together back-to-back starts that put Hattiesburg in position to win games. The first of the two came at the NHSI against Walton (Florida) where he went 4.2 innings and gave up four unearned runs on four hits.
“(Rascoe) has had two quality starters here, and that’s something we need out of him,” Hartfield said. “We need as much pitching depth as we can get. He threw well in North Carolina. I thought he threw well tonight. It looked like he got a little tired, especially mentally. But, he gave us a quality start, he gave us a great opportunity to win a baseball game, and that’s really the main thing you ask for out of a starting pitcher.”
Rascoe picked up four of his eight strikeouts through the first two innings, sitting down the first six Picayune batters in order. He picked up two more strikeouts in the third, but he did allow a run, and Picayune tacked on another score to make it a 4-2 Hattiesburg lead in the fourth. Rascoe’s night was done when he walked two and hit a batter with two outs in the fifth.
“The first two innings, he seemed to be a little sharper than the third and fourth,” Hartfield said. “He had good velocity, he was able to get his curveball across the plate to keep the batters unbalanced and he worked ahead in the count.”
Rascoe will earn more starts for Hattiesburg as the Tigers come down the home stretch of the season, Hartfield added.
Giving up free bases is still an issue, though, and as a team, Hattiesburg has walked 105 opponents and has hit 18.
“We can’t walk guys, especially the leadoff guy,” Hartfield said. “Again, I think that goes back to staying locked in mentally. That’s something we’re going to continue to talk about.”
Gray pitched the final 1.1 innings in relief, and he struck out two and allowed two runs – one earned – on one hit. Friday night could be foreshadowing what could happen in the playoffs, as Rascoe started the game and Gray closed it.
Hattiesburg (14-6, 6-1 in Region 7-5A) is scheduled to play Perry Central and South Jones at home Saturday for Noon and 5 p.m. games. The Tigers return to region play Tuesday with a home game against North Pike at 7 p.m., followed by a road game to North Pike Friday. If Hattiesburg wins one of those two games, it’ll clinch the top spot in the region.
