In the aftermath of their worst day of the season, the St. Aloysius Flashes desperately needed a pick-me-up. Park Place might not have been happy to oblige, but it was there to provide it nonetheless.

St. Al scored 10 runs in the first inning and Rett Verhine hit a walk-off grand slam in the third to finish a lopsided 17-1 victory over the Crusaders Tuesday evening at Bazinsky Field.

St. Al (14-7, 9-4 District 3-AAA) bounced back nicely after getting swept in a doubleheader Monday against Central Hinds. It had 10 hits in less than three full innings before the game was halted by the mercy rule.

“It’s great to come right back out and be able to play the next day,” St. Al coach Sid Naron said. “You never want to have to sit around or practice for a day following a day like yesterday. Those are the days you want to forget, but they come in baseball. We did a lot of things to beat ourselves yesterday, and I was proud of the way the guys bounced back today and were able to handle business with the right kind of attitude.”

St. Al and Park Place (1-15, 0-12) will play again Thursday in a doubleheader in Pearl. St. Al needs to win one of the two games, or have Riverfield lose one of its three this week against Central Hinds, to secure a berth in the MAIS Class AAA playoffs.

After Monday’s losses cost the Flashes a chance to win the District 3-AAA championship and earn a first-round bye, facing a struggling Park Place team for the last three games of the regular season was welcome medicine.

Kasey Fillingame gave Park Place a 1-0 lead with an RBI double in the top of the first inning, but the rest of the game belonged to St. Al.

Cleanup hitter Landon Middleton tied it with an RBI single in the bottom of the first, and Lee Simpson followed with another RBI single to give St. Al the lead for good. It added eight more runs before the inning was over, with Middleton getting another run-scoring single and Will Pierce driving in two with a base hit.

Lane Hynum scored four runs for the Flashes, while Middleton was 2-for-2 with three RBIs. Every starter scored at least one run.

“With the guys they threw on the mound varying velocities, I thought we stayed on the ball fairly well up and down the order. Enough to get hard contact,” Naron said.

Hynum had an RBI triple in the second inning, and drew a two-out walk in the third to load the bases for Verhine.

The senior first baseman had never before hit a home run in his high school career, but with his parents sitting along the third base line on senior night he came to the plate thinking about creating a memory.

Verhine lifted the first pitch he saw deep to left field and just over the fence for a grand slam that made it 17-1 and ended the game.

“It was awesome. We were all talking about it in the dugout, just messing around, saying we’re going to try to hit a home run. I actually looked at the umpire, because I had the bases loaded earlier in the game and got walked, and I said, ‘I’m about to hit it this time,’” Verhine said. “You’re not supposed to try to hit a home run, but I straight tried to yack that one. Grand slam, on senior night, you can’t ask for a better one than that.”

 

Amite 6, PCA 5

David Leyendecker hit a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning to give Amite School Center a win over Porters Chapel Academy.

PCA led 5-1 after four innings, and took a 5-4 lead into the seventh. Dacola McDaniel led off with a double and then later beat the throw home on a fielder’s choice to score the tying run. A walk loaded the bases, and Leyendecker delivered his single to give Amite the win.

Wade Dickard and Leon Simms had two hits apiece for PCA, while Bailey McMillian drove in two runs and Bradley McCullough scored twice.

 

Germantown 16, VHS 0

Connor Cotton went 2-for-2 with a triple, two RBIs and a run scored, Thomas Smith pitched four innings of scoreless ball, and Germantown (16-7) sent Vicksburg High (4-15) into the postseason with a lopsided loss.

Germantown scored three runs in the first inning, seven in the second and six in the third and won via the mercy rule.

Branden Humphrey and Gage Ederington singled for Vicksburg’s only hits.

The Gators clinched a berth in the Class 5A playoffs Monday by sweeping a doubleheader from Lanier to finish third in Division 4-5A. They’ll begin a best-of-three first-round series Friday at either New Hope or Saltillo.