By Robert Wilson
First-year Madison-Ridgeland Academy baseball coach Chad Lipscomb (photo below) knew his Patriots had to get off to a quick start and get the momentum back after Thursday’s loss to Hartfield Academy in a battle between the top two teams in MAIS Class 6A and two of the Top 10 teams in Mississippi.
And boy, did Lipscomb get his wish.
MRA jumped on Hartfield for five runs in the first inning and rolled to a 12-2 victory in the deciding Game 3 of its three-game series Friday night at Hartfield’s Hawk Park.
MRA – ranked No. 10 in Mississippi by MaxPreps – improved to 17-12 overall and 8-4 in conference play and won its fourth consecutive conference series. MRA is tied with Presbyterian Christian School for second place after PCS split a doubleheader with seven-time defending state champion Jackson Prep Friday.
Hartfield – which entered the week ranked No. 1 in Mississippi and No. 33 in the country by MaxPreps – dropped to 23-4 overall and 10-2 in league play and lost its first conference series this season.
MRA won Game 1 5-0 Tuesday, breaking Hartfield’s 13-game winning streak and nine-game unbeaten conference streak (Hartfield’s first shutout in 40 games), but Hartfield bounced back with a 6-4 win in nine innings in Game 2 at MRA.
Some teams could have let that emotional loss carry over into the next game, but not MRA.
“I told our guys after the loss to hold their heads high and flush it, tomorrow is a new day, and we have what it takes to bounce back,” said Lipscomb, who was promoted after 16 years of being an assistant to replace Allen Pavatte, who is now head of school at Manchester Academy. “Our guys have been in the fire all season with our schedule (second toughest in Mississippi, according to MaxPreps) and I tell them forage by fire will get us to where we want to finish. We had a really good batting practice session before we went over Friday, and we just talked about having a plan and trusting it. If we do that and battle harder when we have runners in scoring position, we would win the game. I was really proud of how the boys came out in the first inning. Our approach all week was pretty good. We were able to take advantage of their starting pitcher’s struggles and added a couple hits for the big inning.”
MRA scored five runs with two outs in the first inning. Sophomore right fielder Kade Buchanan singled to score junior centerfielder Gunnar Swanson, senior leftfielder and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College signee Reed Gandy walked, junior third baseman Will Bizot had an infield single, sophomore pitcher Rhett Taylor and senior designated hitter and Holmes CC signee Tyler Hester were both hit by pitch, and sophomore first baseman Holt Adams and senior second baseman and Mississippi Gulf Coast CC signee Garrett Gardner both walked for a 5-0 lead.
That’s all the runs MRA needed. The Patriots added one run each in the second, third and fourth innings and four runs in the sixth inning.
MRA had 13 hits, led by Taylor with three and junior shortstop and Jones County Junior College commitment Alex Lambert, Gardner and Bizot with two each. All but one of MRA’s starter had at least one hit.
Taylor was also the winning pitcher and allowed only three hits and two runs with four strikeouts in five innings. Junior and Northwest Rankin transfer Dylan Varnell and junior Samuel Stockett finished up, allowing one hit and no runs with two strikeouts in one inning.
Taylor, a left-hander, improved to 4-0, one of only three pitchers in Class 6A with have at least four wins without a loss. He came into this week with a 2.78 earned run average in 22 2/3 innings.
“I think Rhett is going to have a really bright future,” Lipscomb said. “His development over the past year has been tremendous. As Rhett gains some strength over the next two years, he is really going to be fun to watch.”
“The five run first inning really put us up quick,” Taylor said. “We had all the momentum and we knew that if we kept the pressure on they would have to get deep in the bullpen. With a great team like Hartfield, a big inning is crucial. Yesterday, I thought my off speed was really working. I wasn’t locating my fastball to the best of my ability and I knew my off speed would get weak contact and a lot of flyballs and weak grounders. The whole lineup 1-9 can all hit so I really focused on hitting my spots, and that was very important to my success. I think just knowing that I had run support really helped me attack the zone. Our whole team was seeing beach balls at the plate. We were all putting quality at bats together and we were able to execute with runners in scoring position, which had been a struggle for us this season. Coach Lipscomb really encouraged us to come back Friday. We know Thursday was a tough loss, but he reminded us that every game against those guys would be a fight. We all know that we have the depth in the bullpen and bat in the lineup to beat anyone. We really proved what we can do Friday when we play to the best of our ability.”
For the second time this week, Hartfield – which came into the week with a Class 6A high .346 batting average – had trouble generating much offense. The Hawks had only two hits in Game 1 and only four in Game 3.
“It was a tough l start for us,” Hartfield coach Justin Smith said. “You just can’t give away runs in these games and we did that early and MRA did a great job of getting runs in each inning to put the game out of reach. We just have to flush it and move on.”
Junior right fielder and Jacksonville, Ala., State commitment Henry Abt had two hits (a triple and a home run), two runs and one RBI to lead Hartfield.
Abt entered the week with a .408 batting average, third best in Class 6A, tied for second in RBIs (26) and tied for third in triples (2).
Senior shortstop and Jacksonville State signee JP Abt, Henry’s brother, said he and his team are looking ahead now.
“We already have this series behind us,” JP Abt said. “We have our sights on PCS (next week’s three-game series and final conference series) and clinching a bye in the playoffs. I’m sure we will see MRA again and the next time we do it will be a different atmosphere and a different hunger to go out and win.”
