Jackets get enough offense in home win
It was singles night at the ballpark for the Starkville Yellow Jackets on Wednesday.
The Jackets were able to get eight hits, all singles, against the quality pitching of Drew Harrison and were able to defeat the Germantown Mavericks 3-2.
For the second-straight week, Starkville played a Class 7A, Region 2 game on a Wednesday due to inclement weather or wet field conditions. The Jackets won both opportunities and improved to 4-1 in the district.
There may not have been many hits for Starkville against the Tulane commit Harrison, but head coach Mark Monaghan said eight was enough.
“Anytime you face an elite arm like that, you just want bat to ball,” Monaghan said. “We were able to do that. Any time you can find a way to win, it's always a great day.”
Even though the Jackets struck out 11 times against Harrison, they were able to put the baseball in play and find holes to do the damage necessary.
Starkville got all of the runs it needed in the second inning when Cohen Deweese had an RBI single and Kierran Coleman drove in two more runs with a single.
“We knew we had a guy with a power fastball coming in and we knew the approach was to stay the other way,” Deweese said. “We did it pretty well.”
The Jackets had a chance to add to their advantage in the fourth inning when Cam Petty and Lucian Walker led off the frame with back-toback singles but got nothing out of the situation.
“I was kind of displeased how we handled the bat in one inning there,” Monaghan said. “We pop up a bunt and have another pop up in foul territory. You've got to be better than that in these type of situations. We talk about extending and if you have a lead, never sit on it and be content. We didn't do that tonight and sometimes that gets you beat, but you have to tip your cap to Jonas Coleman and Larkin (Perry) for doing what they did.”
Jonas Coleman was the starting pitcher for Starkville and worked five-straight scoreless innings before giving up a pair of runs in the sixth. He had three strikeouts, no walks and hit two batters. Perry worked a scoreless seventh and benefited from a key double play to get a save.
Petty and Walker had two singles each to lead the SHS offense.
The Jackets will try to knock off the Mavericks again in Germantown tonight.