Indians Over Berrien; Split With Lovett

The Vidalia High School Indians baseball team took out the Rebels of Berrien County last Tuesday as they swept the best-of-three series. That moved VHS into the Elite 8, which began on Monday of this week against The Lovett School Lions out of Atlanta. VHS and Lovett split their games on Monday, which forced a Game 3 that was played on Tuesday of this week after presstime.

If the Indians won Game 3 over Lovett they would then play on Saturday of this week in the Final 4.

vs. Berrien Game 1 Landry Mead was on the mound in the first game of the series for the Indians and threw a shutout, allowing just two hits while striking out nine. In the top of the first inning Mead got the Rebels three up, three down in the top of the first inning.

In the bottom of the first inning, the Indians put the first runs on the board. Bryson Whited picked up a hit and then took second on a wild pitch. Hughes Graham was hit by a pitch to put two runners on base. Walker Moncus walked to load the bases, and then a walk to Michael Blount to bring in the first run of the game. Jordan Walden hit a single up the middle for a 2-0 VHS lead.

In the bottom of the second inning, Cason Banks led off with a single and then a great bunt by Mead put runners on first and second. Whited then sacrificed them over to second and third, before an intentional walk to Ty Dalley loaded the bases. Graham followed with a sacrifice fly to the fence in left to put VHS up 3-0.

The Indians added two more in the third inning. Blount got an infield hit and and was moved to second on a sacrifice by Walden. Banks hit a shot to the right-field fence for an RBI double and then a single by Mead scored Banks for a 5-0 lead. continued from page

Graham hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth inning to put the Indians up 6-0 heading to the fifth inning. VHS added two in the fifth as Caden Spivey scored on a hit by Banks, and then Mead drove in Banks for an 8-0 VHS lead. VHS closed out the game in the sixth inning. Dalley got things going with a double, and Graham followed with a two-run blast to end the game by the run rule, 10-0. Graham led the Indians with 4 RBI's in the game, with Banks and Mead each getting 3 hits.

Game 2

VHS blew this game open early with a big top of the first inning. They loaded the bases, and after two runs scored a walk to Moncus put the Indians up 3-0. A pop-up to the right side was misplayed to make it 4-0, and then Banks walked to load the bases back up. A hit batter and an error and the Indians were quickly up 7-0. Graham followed with a 2 RBI single to put VHS up 9-0 heading to the bottom of the first inning. Spivey was on the mound for Vidalia and kept the Rebles off the board for another shutout. He struck out just four batters, but only gave up two hits and the VHS defense played well behind him.

Vidalia didn't add any more runs until the top of the fifth inning when Dalley drove in Mead, and then Graham drove in Dalley to give the Indians the 11-0 lead. VHS held in the bottom of the frame to get the run rule win in five innings.

Graham again led VHS with 3 RBI's and 3 hits.

vs. Lovett Game 1

On Monday of this week the Indians and the Lions met up in one of the biggest matchups in AA baseball all year long. For much of the season the Indians and the Lions were sitting in the top two spots in the rankings. The caliber of play of these two ball clubs showed on Monday with a total of seven runs scored over two games.

In the first game of the series, the Indians got some big hits late as they took the win over the Lions. Lovett got a runner on in the top of the first inning, but the Indians didn't allow him to score. In the third inning with two runners on base, the Lions went on top on an RBI double, and then after two walks an RBI single put them up 2-0 on the Indians.

In the bottom of the third inning Spivey reached on a hit and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Banks. Mead followed with an RBI single scored Spivey to close the lead to 2-1. VHS went on to load the bases, but a ground out ended the VHS threat.

VHS held in the next two innings, and in the bottom of the fifth they got the bats working and jumped into the lead. Banks led off with an infield single, and he was moved to second on a bunt by Mead. Whited hit a shot into left field to tie the game at 2-2 with an RBI double. Graham fouled off five pitches before getting a hit through the left side that put the Indians on top 3-2, with Whited sliding into home. Kaleb Bennett came in to run for Graham and stole third base. Then the ball got just away from the catcher on a pitch in the dirt, and Bennett used his speed to come in to score for a 4-2 lead for VHS.

Lovett got a single to get things going in the top of the sixth, but a fly ball and two strikeouts from Mead sent the game to the bottom of the sixth inning with the Indians still up 4-2.

The Indians loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth inning, but a hard drive to the fence was caught for the third out of the frame.

Mead struck out the side in the top of the seventh inning to end the game with VHS winning Game 1, 4-2 over the Lions.

Game 2

It was a pitching dual in the second game between Spivey for VHS and Will Prigge of Lovett. The two pitchers gave up a total of just six hits in the game, neither team committed and error in the field, and just one run was scored, but it was by the Lions. Both pitchers recorded nine strikeouts in the game.

In the bottom of the first inning Lovett put a couple of runners on base, but a double play turned by the Indians sent the game to the second inning still scoreless. In the top of the third inning, Mead just missed a home run as he drove it to the fence, but it was caught for the second out of the frame. In the fourth inning Graham got a hit with Bennett running for him. Moncus walked to put two runners on base, but the Indians couldn't come up with the big hit and the game went to the bottom of the fourth still 0-0. The Indians again hit the ball hard in the top of the sixth inning, but couldn't get anything across. In the bottom of the inning, the Lions hit a ball into center. Banks dove for it, but just missed coming up with the great play, giving them a double. A drive for them into the gap put the Lions on top 1-0. Jordan Walden made a good catch in right for the third out of the inning, but the Lions had taken the lead heading to the top of the seventh inning. In that final frame, the Lions held on with a couple of strikeouts to take the win, 1-0 over VHS, and force a Game 3. That game was played on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. at Greg James Field at VHS after presstime. The winner moves on to play in the Final 4 this Saturday.

VHS Head Coach Brent Korn said, “We got a great performance from both our pitchers today. They also threw the ball well, we just did a bit better adjusting in the first game. We played well and competed, you just have to tip your hat to them. If that ball would have hung up a foot longer for Banks he would have made that play, just great effort. We will tee it up tomorrow and just see what happens.”

Bryson Whited slides in safely to give the Indians the lead in Game 1 of the best-ofthree series with Lovett.Photo by Mike Branch