Fulton Finale

Fulton Finale

Toppers win one, tie one in last series of summer

Sports Editor FULTON, Mississippi –With the finish line to their 2016 regular season in sight, the Marion Toppers had a few scores to settle first.

Playing at Eaton Field on the campus of Itawamba Community College, the Toppers took the rubber match of their season series against the Pontonoc Red Sox 12-5 in a seveninning affair after trailing 4-3 entering the top of the fifth.

The Toppers had previously split a doubleheader against the Red Sox at USA Stadium in Millington, Tennessee.

Pontonoc won the opener that night 12-4 but Marion got even with a 7-4 win in the nightcap.

In their season finale against the Tupelo 49’ers, Marion trailed 3-0 into the bottom of the fifth, but was able to scramble back to tie the game on two separate occasions to end their schedule with a 6-6 tie against the perennial American Legion powerhouse.

Marion finished its summer 33-5-2 overall after a 3-2 start to 2016.

Awaiting the Toppers in Fulton was an umpiring crew that performed to mixed reviews.

That aspect started early when West Memphis native Cam Smith hit a ball into the right-center field gap that set the Toppers up with runners on second-and-third with just one out.

However, the field umpire called Smith out, explaining that Smith missed first.

The Toppers would not score in that inning.

Smith appeared to be victimized again in the bottom of that inning when catcher Trent Johns’ throw beat a Pontonoc runner and Smith appeared to tag him, but the field umpire called the runner safe.

In the top of the fifth with the game tied at 4-4, Johns hit a massive shot to left field that looked to hit the trees behind the wall before bouncing back into play.

But, the field umpire said that the ball was in play, despite the ground rule stating that a ball that hits the trees is out of play for a home run.

Johns would end up on third for a triple and his hit would score two runs, which would double as the eventual winning margin.

The catcher’s hit would spark a five-run rally in the fifth for an 8-4 Marion lead, that would end up as that 12-5 margin.

The season finale against Tupelo was also marred by some officiating weirdness. Following the first out of the game, the new field umpire called Marion head coach Junior Weaver over to talk to his team about their “chirping” or chatter during the game.

Later on, the home plate umpire stopped play to address the Toppers dugout when a Marion player screamed that a 49’er hitter had missed first base.

As far the game, Tupelo scored three times in the first inning and the Mississippi outfit held that 3-0 lead until the bottom of the fifth when the Toppers hit the comeback trail.

A Blake Daniels RBI triple scored Gavin Stone and Nick Alsbrook plated Daniels with a single to get Marion within 3-2 after five frames.

However, Tupelo tossed up three more runs in the top of the sixth for a 6-2 lead.

In the home-half of the sixth, catcher Peyton McElroy scored on a Gavin Stone fielder’s choice and Cam Smith struck a two-run double to get Marion within 6-5.

Daniels struck again with a double to left to score Smith to even the score at 6-all, against all odds.

The teams swapped scoreless seventh innings, which apparently took the teams past the two-hour time limit, leaving the squads with a tie verdict in the finale.

The tie was finalized when the game umpires walked off the field following the final out of the bottom of the seventh inning.

By Chuck Livingston