By Angie Ledbetter
The North Delta Green Wave baseball team hosted Desoto, Ark. for its first district game, winning 13-3 in six innings on Thursday.

The Green Wave defense held Desoto to one run in first, second and fourth inning after allowing nine hits in the game.

At the bottom of the first, the Green Wave got on base with walks by J.T. Dalrymple, Josh Garrott, Jim Tom Copeland, Austin Gant, Geri Lamm and Will Dunlap reaching base by walks.

Dalrymple stole second. Garrott walked and on a passed ball, Dalrymple advanced to third and Garrott to second. Copeland came to the plate and walked.

With bases loaded, Dalrymple scored the first run on a passed ball, moving runner Garrott to third and Copeland to second. Bateman Greenlee hit a double, driving in Garrott for the second run.

Gant then walked, and with a hard line drive single by Michael Magee, Rogers, running for Greenlee, and Copeland scored. With Lamm at bat, Gant stole third.

Dunlap walked and Gant came in for a run. Magee stole home from third and was safe when the catcher dropped the ball.

Lead off batter Dalrymple came back up to bat, hitting a triple and driving in Lamm and Dunlap. With Dalrymple on third, Garrott stepped up to the plate and hit a sacrifice-fly to right, driving Dalrymple in for ninth run of inning.

In the top of second, Desoto got in a run before Greenlee threw out the center fielder for third and final out.

In bottom of the second, Gant walked and Magee singled advancing Gant adto third. With Lamm at bat, Magee stole second. Lamm hit a two RBI single bringing in Gant and Magee.

First baseman for Desoto singled to start the fourth and the right fielder followed with a single.

Lamm pitched four innings, giving up only two runs on six hits before Copeland came to mound in relief.

The Wave scored one run in the bottom of the fifth when Copeland’s run brought the score to 12-3.

With the Wave needing only one run to win the game under the mercy-run rule, Dalrymple hit a single and stole his way around for the winning run to end a cold and windy game in the bottom of the sixth.

Head coach David Hardy said the game was very important to get off to a good start in district and to get the first win of season also.

“It was a win and ended up with the rule with 10 runs in the sixth.  I’d like to think everything was positive coming out of it, but we still have a lot of growing up to do in some areas to stay in the game completely mentally and all aspects no matter what the score is,” he said.

Hardy saw improvements in his pitching.

“Those guys who threw did a good job.  Geri started off and threw a lot of strikes. There were some plays that we did make behind him but the errors weren’t as prevalent this time. Jim Tom came in and did a good job. It looked like his arm was as strong as it has been this year. He’s pitched some in all three games with tonight’s being his strongest.”

The Green Wave played in the Delta Academy Tournament but the score was not available at press time. The Green Wave will take the rest of the week off for spring break and return to action Monday on the road. North Delta will travel to West Memphis for a district game with the time as yet undetermined.

North Delta will host Kirk Academy Tuesday, March 18, in  non-district action beginning at 4 p.m.