POPLARVILLE – Whether it’s summer, fall or regular season baseball, pitching catastrophes are ugly to watch.
In Game 2 of Wednesday’s doubleheader between Team Garner and Team Crim that was the exactly the case.
The two teams traded runs early on as Team Garner got on the board with an RBI single from Britt Netterville (Southwestern CC). Team Crim answered with a solo home run from Nick Skaggs (Pearl River CC) to tie the game at 1-1.
At the same time, Oak Grove alum Drew Boyd (Southern Miss) was keeping Team Garner at bay with an efficient outing. In three innings, Boyd struck out six batters and allowed one run off three hits.
“My fastball and changeup were a good mix today,” Boyd said. “The breaking balls were a little off and I would like to have gotten that going today but overall I was pretty happy.”
Despite Boyd’s early success, Team Crim’s reliever could not duplicate it in the fourth inning.
The inning opened with a double and single and followed with four consecutive walks which set the stage for 10-run inning. In total, Team Garner was walked seven times and came away with five hits in the inning.
Netterville notably finished the game 4-for-4 with four RBIs.
“(Boyd) was spotting up,” Team Garner coach Kreg Garner said. “He threw really well for them today and then just it just fell our way. They ran out of pitching I think. We were able to get some runs from walks. We did a really good job of staying in the game even though they were low on pitching.”
However unlike the second game, Game 1 of the doubleheader the two teams found little separation.
Team Crim took a 2-0 lead by the third inning with Hunter McClean (Meridian CC) hitting a two-out, RBI single in the first inning. Trey Hobgood (Pearl River CC) followed in the second inning with a solo home run.
“You’re just trying to fight and get back in it,” Garner said. “They put up two runs real quick but really you’re just trying to get back in it. That’s definitely possible and especially in the first game.”
Team Garner answered with a pair of runs in the fourth inning as Sumrall alum Graham Crawford (Pearl River CC) an RBI sac fly and Sam Ladner (Coastal Alabama) tied the game with an RBI double.
In the sixth inning, Team Garner was able to seal the come from behind 3-2 win with an RBI sac fly from Kace Garner (Mississippi State).
“That was nice,” Garner said “It was a good job especially getting around third base and get that sac fly. It was really clutch.”
Team Garner was held to just three hits in the first game but two errors and three walks were the difference in the game.
