Greenwood edges Starkville to claim South State crown
Starkville's and Greenwood's 6-year-old Dizzy Dean AllStars battled through 11 innings of runs scored to determine which would be the South State champion and claim the No. 1 seed in today's Overall State Tournament.
The Greenwood Vipors actually had to play three times, but collected a total of 63 runs in those outings to sweep its competition against Caledonia and Starkville to claim the title.
Greenwood defeated Caledonia 25-10 to set up its meetings with Starkville.
After handling Starkville 23-12 in the first game, the Vi-
pors edged the home squad 15-14 in the nightcap.
A one-run loss was a tough pill to swallow for Starkville, but coach Allan Smith was willing to tip the cap to Greenwood.
"Sometimes you have to shake the other man's hand and say, 'congratulations today,'" Smith said.
The second game was a back-and-fourth outing. Starkville jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning as Murphy Gordon and Knox Smith singled and scored, then Greenwood answered with five runs in its half of the first.
Starkville regained the advantage with four runs in the second, but the Vipors earned it right back at 7-6 with a pair of runs in the second.
Preston Crouch doubled and scored to help Starkville tie the game in the third. Greenwood exploded for six runs in the third to seemingly take control at 13-7.
Not to be outdone, Starkville rallied for seven runs in the fourth to gain a 14-13 advantage. That was the last time Starkville scored in the game.
The Vipors scratched out one run in the fourth and one in the fifth to provide the difference.
"The first two times we played them, we hit the baseball and we won," coach Smith said. "(Sunday) we didn't hit the baseball. They hit the ball better than us and that's the difference in the ballgame. The thing in coach-pitch is hit the baseball hard and play defense. We made some errors and didn't hit the baseball as well as they did."
Knox had four hits, while Gordon and Kylan Pulliam added three hits each for Starkville. Crouch had a double and a triple to the effort.
Greenwood 23, Starkville 12
Greenwood used a pair of seven-run innings late to take the first game of the day from Starkville.
After the Vipors scored three times to go up 3-0 in the first, Starkville scored a pair of runs in the first and second to gain a 4-3 advantage.
That's when Greenwood really turned on the offense by scoring six runs in the third, seven in the fourth and seven in the fifth to put the game away.
Starkville did its best to stay in the game by getting one run in the third, four in the fourth and three in the fifth, but it was not enough to overcome the large deficit.
Gordon had four hits in the game for Starkville, including a double to drive in a run in the first inning. Reed Sparks had a pair of doubles late in the outing.
Starkville is now scheduled to take on J.P. Hudson at 5 p.m. in the Overall State at McKee Park today.