| Even after his team’s 14th consecutive loss Monday, first-year Obion Central head coach Joe Graves isn’t ready to throw in the towel.
“Sure, it’s been frustrating for both myself and the kids, but I see some signs of improvement in some area most every day,” Graves said after the Rebels lost 12-4 at Ripley Monday to drop to 1-14.
“No doubt, it’s become much more mental than it is physical. We’ll play well for three or four innings, then we’ll make a mistake and you can see the look of, ‘Oh no, here we go again,’ look in their eyes. We’ve given up a lot of runs just because we’ve given teams extra outs in innings and made our pitchers work harder than they’ve had to.
“I’m certainly not giving up, though, and I don’t expect the kids to either.”
In other action involving local teams from Monday, Union City beat Bradford 8-3, while South Fulton topped Humboldt 10-7.
Rematches of each of those three games are on tap today at Troy, UC and SF.
Monday’s report is as follows:
Ripley 12, OC 4
The Rebels were actually tied in the middle innings at 4-all before Ripley scored the last eight runs of the District 13AA contest.
Central made three more costly errors that led to a handful of the Tigers’ runs being unearned.
Both Camden Napper and John Foster had a hit and a RBI for OC, while Jacob Hyde and Colton Carr went 1-for-3 to account for the county locals’ other base knocks.
Mitch Arnett was the losing pitcher after allowing seven runs (five earned), six hits and walking five. Brady Chandler and Ryan Middlebrook worked in relief.
UC 8, Bradford 3
Drake Parker’s grand slam highlighted a six-run fourth and helped keep the Golden Tornadoes unbeaten in District 14A and improve to 17-5 overall.
Parker went 3-for-4 overall and drove in five runs total for UC, which will host tonight’s rematch at Elam Stadium at 6:30.
Drew Cooley had a couple of doubles, reached base three times and drove in a run for the Purple and Gold on Monday, while Eric Moore and Christian Cousar also laced two-base hits.
Cousar and Travis Rutland both scored twice.
Moore started and pitched the first four innings to get credit for the pitching win. He is now 3-2 after striking out six, walking three and giving up all three Bradford runs.
Caleb Long tossed three shutout frames with just one hit allowed and five Ks to pick up his second save.
SF 10, Humboldt 7
The Red Devils battled back from a 7-0 deficit after two innings to win for the second time in District 14A and improve to 7-11 overall.
A six-run fourth gave South Fulton lead, and the Redmen — who took advantage of six H’boldt errors — then tacked on two more insurance runs in the fifth.
Ryan Prince drove in three runs with a single and a double for the victors. Skylar Grissom reached base three times via a single, a walk and an error and scored three times, while Aaron Hollingsworth doubled, had two RBIs and scored two times.
Tyler Morris contributed at the dish with a hit, two runs and a ribbie.
Austin Hazlewood survived a rocky start to go the distance and notch his fourth pitching win in seven decisions. Just three of the Vikings’ runs were earned, and Hazlewood scattered 11 hits while striking out five. Published in The Messenger 4.16.13 |
