Madison Central rains down on Vicksburg

[3/27/04]Madison Central pitcher Wade Broyles was on, Vicksburg pitcher John Hendrix was not.

The result was a bombardment as Madison Central defeated VHS 12-2 on Friday night in a five-inning, mercy-rule shortened game.

The Gators (9-5) had won seven of their previous eight heading into the game, including a 5-4 win over rival Warren Central on Tuesday.

“Obviously we’re not ready to handle success yet,” said VHS coach Jamie Creel, adding that he won’t make excuses for the loss. “We did not compete in one facet of the game tonight, and I’m extremely disappointed in that.”

Broyles (3-1) threw all five innings for the Jaguars (11-5), allowing two runs on three hits with 11 strikeouts.

“I just had a good night, everything was working,” Broyles said. “I kept the ball down and didn’t really leave much up.”

On the other hand, Hendrix (5-1) had his worst start of the season. He struggled with his control and allowed three walks and threw two wild pitches in the first inning.

Hendrix allowed 12 runs on four hits and four walks in 2 1/3 innings.

“It was an off night, and I expect him to do better next time,” Creel said. “And he knows he’ll do better next time. For some reason he didn’t have it tonight.”

Scott Deloach had an RBI single in the first inning after Hendrix walked the first two batters. Sean Rader followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Jaguars a 2-0 lead.

With two runners on, Nathan Wright hit a line-drive home run to left-center field to put MC up 5-0.

“The big first-inning home run by Nathan Wright was a huge hit,” MC coach Gregg Perry said. “He knocked the crap out of it.”

Tyler Wells answered for Vicksburg with one out in the bottom of the first. Wells hit a towering shot over the left-field wall, but Broyles mowed down the next two batters to end the inning.

Deloach added two more for MC with a single in the second. The Jaguars stretched their lead to 12-1 in the third on three hits and a pair of VHS errors.

“We were watching 0-1 fastballs down the middle, 0-2 breaking balls for called strike threes,” Creel said. “We’re not swinging the bat, not being aggressive. We hit some hard balls, but we’ve just got to continue to get better.”

PCA 22-13, SIA 3-1

After disposing of Sharkey-Issaquena Academy in a pair of blowouts Friday night, the Porters Chapel Eagles are prepared for the toughest two games of the season.

The Eagles will play Columbia, an Academy AA school today at 2:30, then will host mighty Hillcrest Christian on Monday.

The two schools were not supposed to play this year, but a schedule change with each school’s game against Veritas opened the schedule.

In the opener against Sharkey, Michael Busby struck out 14 of 15 batters faced to improve to 5-0 on the season.

Humphrey Barlow led the Eagles’ 14-hit attack with a single, two doubles, a home run and five RBIs. Josh gain and Ryan Hoben each had three hits, and Justin Boler hit an RBI double.

In the second game, Josh Gain pitched a four-inning complete game for his first career victory. He struck out eight and did not walk any Confederates.

Warren Central 14, Natchez 2

Zach Balthrop allowed three hits and struck out eight as the Vikings (13-5, 2-1 Division 6-5A) smothered division-rival Natchez.

Warren Central scored seven runs in the second inning and finished with 13 hits.

Allen Carlisle had three hits and three RBIs for the Vikings. Mark Different also added three RBIs.

Nick Carson, Kyle Gordon and John Rice Pettway each had a pair of hits.

Pettway hit a two-run home run in the fifth inning.