Mississippi marathon

Mississippi marathon

Toppers split doubleheader in Cleveland

Sports Editor CLEVELAND, Mississippi — After one of their hottest stretches of the summer, the Marion Toppers appeared to hit the wall at Ferriss Field on the campus of Delta State University on Wednesday night.

In a wild game that took over two hours to play and began in 97-degree heat, the Pure Momentum All-Stars captured a 6-4 eightinning decision after seeing the Toppers (32-5-1 overall) rally to tie the game at 1-1 and 4-4, but a two-run extra inning gave Pure Momentum the victory.

In the second game, Pure Momentum continued its momentum by scoring the game’s first two runs for a 2-0 lead after the first inning, but the Toppers struck back to score the game’s final five runs to split the twinbill.

“The All-Stars are a roster full of guys from the Jackson, Mississippi area and had about six or seven guys in their lineup that could really hit,” says Marion Toppers head coach Junior Weaver.

“There were a few junior college coaches there recruiting their guys.

Honestly, it was probably the best lineup we’ve faced all summer.”

That firepower was on display from the word go as Pure Momentum came up with three hits in the first inning for a 1-0 lead off of starter Kris Peet.

The Toppers got square when Nick Alsbrook scored on a Trent Johns sacrifice fly.

Peet lasted three innings before giving way to righthander Larkey Dotson and Dotson was greeted by a barrage of six hits and three runs that gave Pure Momentum a 4-1 lead headed to the bottom of the fourth.

The Toppers got a pair back in their half of the fourth when Cam Smith singled and scored on a Blake Daniels triple.

Daniels came around on a Nick Alsbrook ground-out to get within 4-3 and appeared to tie the game, but a bang-bang call went against Marion.

Kollin Stone beat a throw home with a slide that would have tied the game, but was called out by the home plate umpire to keep Pure Momentum in the lead at 4-3.

“The umpire said that Kollin didn’t touch the plate,” Weaver explained.

“Well, I saw him get up with his hand on home plate, so that wasn’t true.

Then he said that he didn’t make it to the plate because the catcher was blocking the plate without the ball, which you can’t do. That definitely cost us in that situation.”

Instead, the Toppers had to wait until the bottom of the sixth to tie the game when Gavin Stone singled and scored on a Daniels sacrifice fly.

Kollin Stone worked around a one-out walk and a single to keep the game tied but the Toppers went down in order to send the game to an eighth, and final, inning.

The eventual game-winning run reached on a leadoff error and scored on a double before Pure Momentum added another run on a double.

In its final at-bat, the Toppers went down in order and lost just its fifth game of the season.

It was Kollin Stone’s first loss of the season, in his longest outing of 2 2/3 innings pitched.

In the nightcap, the Toppers found themselves in another early 2-0 hole, but battled back.

Marion got on the board when Gavin Stone walked and scored on an Alsbrook single to get within 2-1.

That set the table for a four-run fourth-inning rally that was spearheaded by Peyton McElroy and Evin Cooper.

McElroy walked to lead off the inning and courtesy runner Kollin Stone scored when Cooper drove a ball through to the right side of the field to tie the game.

A Bryce Logan single scored Nolan Smith for a 3-2 lead and Cooper would score on a wild pitch and Gavin Stone came around on an Alsbrook sacrifice fly for a 5-2 advantage.

In the fifth inning, righthander Parker Benson closed out Pure Momentum by working around a one-out single to pitch a five-inning complete game to claim the win. Benson allowed six hits, two earned runs, walked two and struck three batters out. He’s now 6-0 this summer.

The game was played at Delta State University, home of the 2004 NCAA Division 2 National Champions, a fact that was exciting to Weaver.

“We like playing down here because it’s a beautiful ballpark, their coach is a good friend of mine, been friends for 30 years or so,” says the coach.

“This is a place with a lot of tradition and I wanted our guys to see that. The best part is that they’re looking at our centerfielder (Kollin Stone) and our shortstop (Gavin Stone) so hopefully that works out too.”

The Toppers close their season on Saturday at Itawamba Community College.

By Chuck Livingston