In a game that saw 11 Pascagoula Panthers get hit by pitches, Pascagoula cashed in on many of those baserunners and beat Moss Point 14-5 Wednesday night at storied Ingalls-Richie Tillman Field in Pascagoula.
First-year Panthers coach Colton Caver took a minute to add all those up on his scoresheet after the game.
“I’ve never been involved in a game seeing 11 players getting hit by pitch, it is definitely a first for me,” Caver joked. “Our kids battled back a couple of times in the game. I thought Kevon Ford did a decent job on the mound for Moss Point, hitting around 88 on his fastball and matched it with good breaking pitches.
“Despite the score, we still left 10 or 11 players on base, and we need to improve on that.”
In the baseball version of the Jackson County Cat Fight, the Tigers jumped out early on Panthers starting pitcher Terry Lee, with Aiden Evans reaching and later scoring on one of many wild pitches in the game.
Brendon Waltman doubled and later scored on a double steal with heads-up baserunning, stealing home when the throw went to second. But Lee settled down and struck out the next two Tigers to end the inning. Lee battled through four innings and had nine strikeouts on the night leading to the win.
The Panthers tied it in the bottom of the first with Adrian Rosado becoming the first of the 11 batters hit by a pitch, and then after Griffin Wells ripped a line-drive single to left, Rosado scored on a wild pitch, as did Wells later in the inning.
Lee took charge in the second inning by striking out the side—three up, three down. Ford answered with similar success with Pascagoula going scoreless in the second, which was the only scoreless inning in the game.
The rest of the game kind of looked more like games you might see across Tucker Street on the youth fields, as wild pitches and hit-by pitches became the theme.
“There are going to be some growing pains,” said Caver. “This is a new team, new coaching staff, new culture and everybody is still trying to figure each other out. So far, we have struggled to stay consistent on offense, especially early in the game. Our goal basically is to get the leadoff guys on and let the juice of our order knock them in and we do it sometimes.
“Over these first four games, it seems to happen later, including tonight.”
After Moss Point put two more across to take a 4-2 lead, which became 4-3 with Pascagoula scoring in the third, the Panthers had their best inning of the night in the bottom of the fourth.
The inning started with a great at-bat from Braden Smith, who was one of nine Panthers hitters to bat in the inning. Smith hit an infield single in no-man’s-land between the mound and first and hustled to beat out the play. He then stole second and later scored on a wild pitch.
Between walks and hit-by-pitches, Pascagoula scored when Dylan Melendez knocked in Rosado on a groundout and later Jared Loper singled up the middle to knock in Wells. Sean Norvell also added an RBI single, pushing across the fourth run of the inning to make the score 7-4.
In the bottom of the fifth, there was a scary moment as Smith broke his nose leading off when he was hit by a pitch in the wedge between the top of the helmet and the face mask. But that led to another Panther three-run rally, with Melendez slamming a two-run double, probably the best ball hit for the home team all night.
Pascagoula put four more up in the sixth inning as Rosado earned an RBI and later scored his third run of the game and Tank Bishop joined the RBI party as well.
Ra’shard Earnest came in to relieve Lee in the fifth inning and only gave up one run in two innings. Ford was the losing pitcher as Moss Point fell to 0-4.
“We face Baker on Saturday, and they have a good club, just beating Ocean Springs,” said Caver. “We have lost two games by one run, and we practice knocking in runners all the time. I think if they can get success a couple of times, we can start rolling.”
After hosting Baker, the Panthers (2-2) will play St. Stanislaus in Pascagoula on Wednesday, Feb. 28.
