Pearl River defeats MGCCC baseball 14-6

Bryan Babin is one of six Bulldog pitchers that saw action against Pearl River May 3.

Bulldogs end season after dropping MACJC tie-breaker

POPLARVILLE---After two innings it looked as though Gulf Coast and Pearl River would duel for the No. 4 seed in the MACJC South Division well into the late spring evening. However, the home standing Wildcats took advantage of several key run scoring opportunities to pull away from the Bulldogs and win 14-6 to advance to the MACJC State Playoffs this weekend. The loss ended the season for Gulf Coast (28-16).

“We’ve preached to our guys all year long about how much walks will kill you,” said first year head coach Gary Rath. “You can take it when good hitting beats you, but not walks and errors.”

Six Bulldog pitchers…Kenneth Atwood, Jordan Steele, Bryan Babin, Nick Purdy, Tyler Buckley, and Micheal Baxter combined walked six Pearl River batters and gave up 14 hits. Pearl River starter Buck Bernard gave up 10 hits and six runs, but only gave up one run after the second inning.

Derek Davis (8) tries to reach second against Pearl River May 3.

The game began as a back-and-forth affair as Bulldog sophomore Jeremy Hill blasted a solo homer in the top of the first to put his team in the lead 1-0. The Wildcats answered with three in the bottom of the first while Gulf Coast responded with a four-run second to take a 5-3 lead.

Pearl River (22-25) came back with five more runs in the bottom of the second and two in the bottom of the third to surge in front 10-5. Four more Wildcat runs in the 7th basically put the game out of reach. Patrick Kirkland led the Bulldog offense with two doubles and two RBI while Ty Lain had a two RBI double and Corey Groue drove in the other Gulf Coast run with a single in the eighth.

The Bulldogs forced the tie-breaking game after getting a doubleheader split with Hinds May 1. Unfortunately those two games depleted an already overworked pitching staff for Gulf Coast.

“We went as long as we could with our pitchers,” Rath said. “At the end we were running on fumes.”

As for the 2010 season, Rath put it in perspective.

“We had two 30-day road trips this season,” he said. “That’s not easy on 19 and 20 year old kids. We also didn’t do the little things at key moments during the year. We battled hard until the end.”