By Robert Wilson
Madison-Ridgeland Academy senior right-hander and Ole Miss signee Jackson Evers had another outstanding performance – one hit and no runs with eight strikeouts in four innings – and the Patriots hung on for a 12-9 victory over Hartfield Academy Tuesday night in Game 1 of a MAIS Class 6A three-game series as the two teams battle for second place and a first-round bye in the playoffs at MRA in Madison.
Evers threw 91 pitches – the most all season – and left the mound with MRA ahead 8-0. Hartfield rallied for six runs in the sixth and three runs in the seventh, but MRA scored three runs in the sixth also to keep the lead.
MRA improved to 20-9 overall and 9-4 in league play. Hartfield dropped to 21-7 overall and 8-4 in league play. If MRA wins one of the next two games, the Patriots clinch the No. 2 seed and get a first-round bye next week in the playoffs. Hartfield needs to win both games to clinch the No. 2 seed.
The scheduled starting pitchers for Game 2 Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Hartfield are MRA junior right-hander Camp Segrest (2-0 record, 2.18 earned run average) and Hartfield junior left-hander Wiggy Ball (0-0, 3.50 ERA).
Evers – a member of the PriorityOne Bank/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Preseason Elite 11 Team – pitched his third consecutive solid game after battling with illness and injuries this season. He has now allowed only one run in the last 13 innings. Evers improved to record to 3-4 and lowered his earned run average to 2.83. He has 14 strikeouts in his last nine innings.
MRA senior first baseman Corey Watkins his seventh home run of the season for a 1-0 lead in the first inning, then the Patriots scored seven runs in the second inning (junior right fielder JW Snopek and senior centerfielder Nicholas Arnold had triples and Evers and senior catcher Bennett Cloud had doubles) for an 8-0 lead.
Hartfield cut into MRA’s 9-0 lead with six runs – led by senior first baseman Ben Stringer’s grand slam home run – in the sixth. Arnold hit a 2 RBI double to key MRA for three runs in the sixth to push the lead back to 12-6.
Hartfield scored three runs and got the tying run to the on-deck circle in the top of seventh before MRA senior right-hander Tyler Evans – the third relief pitcher after Jackson – was able to get the final out of the game.
“We couldn’t throw strikes and walked a lot, but I will take an ugly win,” said MRA coach Allen Pavette, who has won two state titles (2012 and 2016) in his 11 seasons at MRA and has finished second to Prep for the last three seasons for the 6A state title. “I was hoping Jackson could go five or six innings, but he threw a lot of pitches in the first inning. He made some big pitches getting out of trouble. His slider and change up were working well. Jackson is getting stronger and getting in more of a rhythm.”
“We need to have more competitive pitching in big games like that,” said second-year Hartfield coach Justin Smith, who was promoted to head coach when Chuck Box became Director of Player Personnel at Texas A&M. “I was proud of how our guys battled back, but you can’t win games having to do that. The good news is we play a three game series so my goal is to get our players ready to win Games 2 and 3 of the series.”
