By Angie Ledbetter

The North Delta Green Wave rallied after the second inning to win 9-8 against North Sunflower in tournament action at Delta Academy on Monday.

The Green Wave entered the contest with only 11 players due to spring break, battling their way through eight innings which took two hours and 45 minutes in a two-hour limit game.

The game was tied at eight at the end of the sixth inning. Game officials would not let the game end in a tie.

North Sunflower pounded seven runs to the Green Wave’s one in first inning. Austin Gant scored the only run. He walked to get on base. Jim Tom Copeland hit a double advancing Gant to third. Bateman Greenlee hit a sacrifice-fly to right field and Gant scored.

Ethan Waldrip was the starting pitcher for the Green Wave. Gant relieved him in middle of first inning.

Copeland scored on a  Greenlee double RBI (run batted in) in the third inning. Chris Rogers, designated runner for Greenlee, scored on a Barnett double RBI. North Sunflower scored its eighth and final run of the game in the bottom of the third.

Copeland took the mound half way through fourth inning to relieve Gant.

In the fifth, the Green Wave added three more runs. Copeland hit a single and stole his way around the diamond to score. Magee hit a single followed by Barnett with a double.

Britt Lawrence drove Magee and Barnett home with a two RBI double putting the Green Wave back in the game.

The Green Wave woke everyone up in the sixth by tying the game at eight.

Garrott singled to start the drive. A single by Gant put runners on first and second. With Copeland at the plate, Garrott stole third while Gant stole second. Copeland walked loading the bases. Garrott and Gant scored to tie the game.

Neither team scored in the seventh inning which forced the extra inning.

The Green Wave took the lead in the top of the eighth inning on a Copeland double.

With Greenlee at bat, Copeland stole his way home while Greenlee singled.  Magee grounded to third and advanced to second on an error. Barnett walked loading the bases in hopes of giving the Green Wave a chance to get more runs across plate.

North Sunflower’s pitcher struck out the last two batters to end the inning 9-8 Green Wave.

Senior Josh Garrott ended any hopes of a North Sunflower comeback by catching two fly balls while Copeland struck out the other batter.

Both teams had 13 hits in the game. Copeland fanned 10 batters, sitting down nine in a row, and not allowing any hits by North Sunflower in the last four innings.

Coach David Hardy said his team had another bad inning that almost cost them the game.

“I was of proud of how they came back throughout the rest of the game after that first inning,” Hardy said. “We stuck with it and didn’t give up, just dropping our heads. We kept eating away at the lead. We’ve got to eliminate one bad inning. When we go to our district play, we can’t afford to have those. Sometimes you can come back and sometimes you can’t.  It was just a group effort and Jim Tom Copeland came in and definitely did a good job on the mound for us. I was proud that we got back even on the season at 2-2.”