By Brad Greer

 

There are days when nothing seems to go right on the baseball diamond.

North Delta had one of those games Thursday night against Magnolia Heights.

Despite out-hitting the Chiefs 6-2, the Green Wave committed five errors while stranding eight runners on base and struck out 12 times at the plate in a 6-0 loss.

“There was not many positives that I saw out of tonight’s game on our part,” said Green Wave head coach Duke McCrory.

“Magnolia Heights has a solid ball team and when you give a good club like that extra opportunities at the plate and in the field you’re asking for trouble. But that’s baseball. You are going to have days like this. I felt like we did a pretty good job on the mound tonight. We gave up only one earned run so when you give up five freebies to teams like that you’re going to lose,” said McCrory.

North Delta (3-1) left runners in scoring position with less than two outs in four of the seven innings.
Magnolia Heights got on the board in the bottom of the second with one run before adding two more in the third to take a 3-0 lead.

Kevin Barber drew a one-out walk before scoring on an error in the second inning.

After North Delta left runners on first and second in the top of the third, leadoff hitter Jemel Newsome reached on a error then scored on an Austin Smith single. Smith would then advance to third and a pair of wild pitches and score on Barber’s fielders’ choice.

The Chiefs tacked on another unearned run in the fourth as Kirkland Sanders led off the frame by getting hit  by a pitch before going to second on an error. Sanders would then advance to third on Colin Lyes sacrifice bunt and score on a passed ball.

North Delta put runners on second and third with one out in the sixth     only to have Chiefs reliever Jackson Pitts strike out the next two batters to retire the side.

Magnolia Heights pushed across the final two runs in the bottom of the sixth on four walks.

“We have got a long season ahead of us so this is just one game. We will hit the practice field tomorrow and get ready for another good team in Washington and see how it goes,” said McCrory.

North Delta played at Washington last night and will host Tunica today  before going back to Magnolia Heights Thursday. Both games will start at 4 p.m. with junior varsity games.

Luke Latham doubled and singled to lead North Delta at the plate. Will Magee, Bailey Guckert, Sy Pritchard and Skylar Lawson followed with singles.

Ethan Waldrip (1-1) took the loss by giving up two hits and two unearned runs in three innings. Waldrip fanned four while walking two batters. Tyler Pirtle surrendered four runs (one earned) in 2.2 innings of relief work while Renic Greenlee retired the only batter he faced in the bottom of the sixth.

Smith and Wesley Bolton singled to account for Magnolia Heights only hits. Smith also picked up the win on the mound.