John Michael Harris of the Culkin Cyclones delivers a pitch on Saturday in a loss to the Vicksburg Hurricanes.(The Vicksburg Post/Jon Giffin)

[07/28/02]The Vicksburg Hurricanes bounced back from a tough loss in their first Governor’s Cup game and stayed alive for a berth in the championship round with a dominating win over the Culkin Cyclones on Saturday afternoon.

Dylan Wooten struck out seven batters in three innings of hitless ball, and also hit a two-run home run to lead the Hurricanes to a 16-0 win.

Stephen Evans also hit a two-run homer, Chris Snow and Jimmie Elliott each had an RBI single, and the ‘Canes turned two double plays, batted around in all three innings they came to the plate, and took advantage of 13 walks from four Culkin pitchers.

Gabby Hayes singled off of reliever Colby Key to start the fourth inning for the Cyclones’ only hit.

“We had dropped three games in a row two at nationals and then our first one here and it was a great win for our mental psyche to get back in our winning ways,” said Hurricanes coach Randy Martin-Nez, whose team lost its opener to North Jackson 6-3 on Friday.

Wooten walked Culkin leadoff batter Hayes to start the game, but got a double play ball from the next batter to end the threat.

After Hurricanes’ leadoff batter Darrick White doubled to start the bottom of the first, Vicksburg opened a 5-0 lead with the help of four walks and a hit batter. Kolby Porter added a sacrifice fly, and Elliott delivered a two-out, RBI single to cap the inning.

Vicksburg’s bats then went to work in the second inning as the Hurricanes put the game out of reach.

Pierson Waring led off with a single and scored two batters later when Evans blasted a ball over the center field fence to make it 7-0. Justin Rushing followed with a single and scored on Snow’s RBI base hit before Wooten made it 10-0 with another homer to center.

“That sucker felt good,” said Wooten, whose homer was his first ever. “I thought it was going to hit the wall real hard.”

As Wooten mowed down the Cyclones, recording the last seven outs of his stint on strikeouts, Culkin’s pitchers struggled.

The Hurricanes drew eight walks in the bottom of the third, scoring five runs and batting around without getting a hit.

“Our pitching didn’t gel,” Culkin coach Jim Harper said. “We threw about everything we had at them, and they hit it pretty hard.”

While the Hurricanes hoped to earn a wild-card berth to today’s championship round, the loss ended Culkin’s hopes of advancing that far. The Cyclones fell to 0-2 in the tournament after the loss.

“We were a little disappointed we couldn’t finish a little better. We had a good season and had some strong finishes in a couple of tournaments, but today we just couldn’t gel,” Harper said. “But there’s always next year, and we’ll be back.”