BAY ST. LOUIS – It’s tough for an opposing pitcher to navigate through the first five batters in the Sumrall lineup. The room for error goes out the window when the bottom of the order is hitting the ball well, too.
Led by the six through nine hitters, a six-run second inning gave the Bobcats all the cushion they needed in a five-inning, 11-1 Game 1 win over St. Stanislaus Thursday. Game 2 of the 4A third-round series is set for 7 p.m. Friday at Larry Knight Field in Sumrall.
“The biggest thing I told our guys before the game was I don’t feel like we’ve played to our potential yet,” Sumrall coach Larry Knight said. “We’ve scored runs, but a lot of that had to do with what the other team has done. I told them tonight, ‘Guys, it just feels like one of those nights where we’re going to bust it loose,’ and sure enough, we did.”
By the time Sumrall built a 7-1 lead entering the fourth inning, the bottom four hitters have six of the team’s eight hits with four RBI and five runs. By the end of the game, the combination of Mason Story, Tanner Morgan, Seth Mitchell and Hayden Barrett had eight of the team’s 12 hits.
Story and Morgan each picked up two hits while Mitchell added three and Barrett had one. It was only the third time this season Mitchell and Barrett hit consecutively in the eighth and ninth spots of the lineup, according to Knight.
“Those guys have really been doing a good job for us,” Knight said.
Sumrall was primed to score in the first inning but came away with nothing. In the second, however, the Bobcats made up for it. Starting with a one-out walk for senior Billy Garrity, Story doubled to left field to plate the game’s first run.
Tanner Morgan followed Story with a walk, and Mitchell and Barrett had back-to-back RBI singles to center field to give the Bobcats a 3-0 lead. With the bases loaded and two outs, Crawford drew a walk and Hunter Barrett was hit by a pitch to plate two more runs. A single by Garrity gave Sumrall a commanding 6-0 lead.
“I don’t know if anything unraveled, but they put a little pressure and we didn’t respond,” St. Stanislaus coach Mark Logan said. “That was sort of the bottom line.”
While the Bobcats were putting runs on the board, Hunter Barrett was keeping St. Stanislaus at bay on the mound. The senior pitched all five innings while allowing one earned run off three hits.
“Hunter is a gamer,” Knight said. “Coming to somebody else’s place, he loves pitching in those situations. Some guys don’t handle it well, and he wanted it.”
The bottom of the order got things going again in the third, as Story led off the frame with a double followed by a single from Morgan to score Story. Leading 7-1 in the fourth, Garrity doubled to score courtesy runner Marshall Phillips, then the Sumrall right fielder advanced to third and scored off two wild pitches to take a 9-1 advantage.
Garrity finished the night by going 2-for-2 at the plate with two RBI and a walk.
Sumrall put the 10-run rule into play with two more runs in the fifth. Dannis Jackson’s sacrifice fly to center made it 10-1, and pinch runner Liam Munn scored off an infield error to finish off Sumrall’s scoring.
“Once they got that lead, they just kept the pressure on,” Logan said. “That’s what good teams do.”
St. Stanislaus had some hard-hit balls off Barrett, but most were right at Bobcat outfielders. The Rocks collected just three base hits and reached on a couple of Sumrall errors, but they couldn’t string together enough to make it interesting.
Two of St. Stanislaus’ hits came in the third inning, as Ethan McNeill’s sacrifice fly scored the Rock-a-Chaws’ lone run.
“I don’t know if we put (the hits) together at the right time,” Logan said. “We’d get people on and we got a couple of guys picked off, which sort of hurt us. Their pitcher threw well. He mixed it up, he hit his spots and kept us off-balance a little bit.”
Sophomore Kros Sivley and senior Halen Sanford are Knight’s Top 2 options to start Game 2 Friday, while Logan will go with one of his seniors.
“If we decide to go with Peyton (Sandrock), then he’ll be the guy,” Logan said. “If he can give us five or six then great. If not, we may have to go deep. There’s only a certain amount of guys who can throw against them and have a shot.”
