Saint Mary’s hosted their first district game after a weekend tournament in memory of Coach McMinn’s father. The first Rick McMinn memorial tournament started last Thursday evening with Florien playing Quitman. Quitman pulled out a 15-6 victory over the Black Cats in that first game. Friday action had Many playing St. Mary’s in game one and Pickering versus Florien in game two.
St. Mary’s led 6-3 in the sixth inning and Nathan Slaughter takes the mound. The home Tigers gave up four runs to Many on a couple of hits and an error. Trailing 7-6 in the bottom of the seventh things get the St. Mary’s pulse quickening. With runners in scoring position at second and third base and with no outs, Saint Mary’s next two batters go down on strikes.
Payne Williams III lines a frozen rope at the third baseman who happens to knock the ball down in front of him. The third baseman scooped up the ball and threw Williams out at first for the out and the one run win, 7-6. Florien picks up their own one run win in game two over Pickering 8-7.
Saturday action had Quitman versus Montgomery then Saint Mary’s. Those two games were followed by two more games with False River playing Montgomery and then Florien. Quitman beat Montgomery 12-2 in game one. Saint Mary’s beat Quitman 8-2 with Williams going three innings on the mound and Slaughter andPatrick Vienne each pitching two. False River beat Montgomery 12-7 and then Florien beat False River 10-0.
The forecast for rain moved the District opener for St. Mary’s up a day. In advance of the precipitation, the home Tigers rained in runs against LaSalle in four innings of work Monday. The home Tigers were 13-4 coming into district play against some solid competition. Williams III started on the mound for St. Mary’s. He was a bit shaky to start and gave up one run in the first. His teammates answered with a run of their own to knot things up after one. Saint Mary’s added another run in the second as Williams starts painting the strike zone. He only gave up the one run on two hits by LaSalle.
SMH has thunder in the bats in the bottom of the third producing six runs. In the bottom of the fourth, Saint Mary’s adds three more runs on three hits and one error by LaSalle. The 10-run rule claims another victim for the Tigers. St. Mary’s has had 11 wins by the 10-run rule this season. Final score 11-1 Saint Mary’s over LaSalle in the District opener. Drake Griffin went three for three at the plate and Vienne sent one over the wall again in the win.
Coach Brooks McMinn on the win remarked, “I thought we played well, we had our bats respond well when we had runners in scoring position. That is something we did not do well over the weekend. We did real well manufacturing runs today but the season still has a long way to go.”
Next game is Wednesday evening on the road at North Desoto.
