By Brad Greer

The Batesville Bandits could not have picked a worse time to lose their first two games of the season.

Heading into the Monday night’s championship game of the Dizzy Dean 10-year-old North State tournament, the Bandits had run roughshod over four opponents while giving up five runs in the process and was one win away from a World Series berth next week in Southaven.

All of that came to an abrupt end however as the Bandits were soundly defeated by host Grenada 11-2 and 13-3 in four innings.

“I don’t know if it was a case of nerves or what but we just did not play well today,“ said Bandit head coach Thad Campbell. “We made a bunch of errors and walked more batters in the two games than we did the entire tournament. For whatever reason, we did not hit the ball today.

“It was not a showing, but you have to give Grenada all the credit in the world,” Campbell continued. “They came out here and did what they had to do. They hit the ball and played great defense and deserved to win.”

Grenada jumped out to a 3-0 first-inning lead of the opening game on a pair of hits and three wild pitches. Batesville got on the board in the top of the second  as Brandon Henson drew a one-out walk then scored two batters later on Justin Hudson’s single up the middle.

The Bandits added an unearned run in the third inning to close the margin to 3-2 on Lige Simmerman’s single that chased home Clayton Harris from second. That would be all the Bandits could muster  off Grenada starting pitcher Emmanuel Forbes as the right-hander fanned nine in four innings of work.

Grenada took the lead for good by plating three runs in the third, one in the fourth and four more in the fifth to win.

Simmerman led Batesville at the plate with a pair of singles while Ford Wilson and Hudson each added singles.

Things did not get any better for the Bandits in the nightcap as the home team scored four runs on four errors in the first and three more runs in the second for a 7-0 advantage. Batesville scored all its runs in top of the third as Dalton Barefoot drilled a one-out  triple then scored on a wild pitch.

Harris followed Barefoot by getting hit by a pitch. After Simmerman flied out, Reid Rushing and Eli Campbell drew walks to load the bases. Wilson followed with a single to score Harris and Rushing.

Grenada answered with a single run in the third and ended the game with five runs in the fourth inning. Rushing accounted for Batesville’s only other hit with an infield single in the first. Antonio Wilks tossed three innings on the mound to record the win for Grenada while Harris suffered both losses on the hill for the Bandits.