SEC baseball tourney
Bizzle named Mr. Baseball, then wins game
Ole Miss defeated No. 10 seed Georgia 5-1 in the first round. The Rebels will face No. 2 seed South Carolina today. Vanderbilt beat Missouri 7-0.
Weston Bizzle’s Tuesday started off well. And it only got better as the day progressed.
Bizzle — a junior who has committed to Vanderbilt — pitched a completegame one-hitter and drove in two runs as Christian Brothers High School opened defense of its Division 2-AA state championship with a 4-0 victory over Pope John Paul II in a game played at Wilson Central.
The victory sends the Brothers into a 12:30 p.m. game today against Chattanooga McCallie, with a spot in Thursday’s final awaiting them if they win. A loss would send them into a 5 p.m. elimination game.
But if the Brothers get another pitching performance to match Bizzle’s, they should be fine. He struck out seven and walked just one, with 52 of his 79 pitches going for strikes, after being named Mr. Baseball earlier in the day.
PJP starter Mason Hickman, who also will play at Vandy, was cruising along pretty well until the bottom of the fifth when CBHS scored all of its runs. Landon Kelly led off with a walk and eventually came around on John Louis Bland’s single. Bizzle then followed with a two-run hit.
Center fielder Jarrett Fowlkes made a fine overthe-shoulder catch on the only hard-hit ball off of Bizzle.
As good as that performance was, though, it wasn’t the best a Shelby County team saw Tuesday.
Unfortunately for Collierville, it was on the wrong side of the gem as Sevier County’s Devante Matthews no-hit the Dragons, 3-0, in Class AAA. Matthews struck out 11, and a walk and an error provided Collierville with its only two baserunners.
Collierville faces Murfreesboro Siegel in a 10 a.m. elimination game in a game that will be played at Siegel.
The area’s other AAA representative fared much better as Arlington defeated perennial power Farragut, 5-2.
The Tigers also got a terrific pitching performance as Hayden Edwards allowed two hits while striking out nine. Hunter Goodman paced the offense with a two-run double.
Arlington takes on Stewarts Creek in a winner’s bracket game at 12:30 p.m.
In D2-A, Harding and ECS will meet in an elimination game at 10 a.m. at LaVergne High following losses.
Davidson Academy roughed up Jake Criswell, Harding’s all-time leader in innings pitched, wins and strikeouts, scoring seven runs in the second inning en route to a 9-0 victory. Hayden Hollingsworth and Ben Switzer each had two hits and two RBIs to lead the Bears.
ECS led 2-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh before Franklin Road Academy pushed across a pair of runs to advance.