Strong pitching by Cyrus Rone enabled Ethel to get a split in two games played Saturday at Pelahatchie High School. The Tigers rebounded from a 3-1 loss to Puckett with an 8-2 victory over Union.
Rone pitched four no-hit inning against Union, with seven strikeouts. After sailing through the first three innings, facing the minimum nine batters, he experienced control problems in the fourth, with two walks and two hit batters that produced a run, tying the game at 1-1. Catcher Brady White kept the inning from being worse by throwing out Jaxon Hollingsworth attempting to steal second after being hit to open the inning. It was the second would be base stealer he cut down in the game.
“He''s hard to hit,” coach Chris Schuster said of Rone, but he added “The curveball gets away from him now and then.”
The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the second when Wes Bishop drew a two-out walk and scored on a double by Hayden Langford. After Union knotted the score in the top of the fourth, the Tigers took the lead for good, scoring a run in the bottom of the inning when Gave Cain led off with a walk, stole second and came around to score when a sacrifice bunt by Kameron McCuller elicited a throwing error by Union pitcher Colt Smith..
A two-run homer by Cain in the fifth made it 4-1. After Union scored once in the sixth the Tigers put four runs on the scoreboard in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by Tyler Weaver's two-run single.
KT Adams pitched the final three innings for the Tigers with five strikeouts. He escaped a based loaded with one out threat in the seventh to nail down the victory.
Langford had a double and two singles, McCuller two singles and Weaver two singles with two RBIs and a run scored.
The Tigers were held to three hits and committed four errors against Puckett. McCuller pitched the first 2.1 innings, allowing two hits and no earned runs, with four strikeouts and no walks. But the Wolves scored two unearned runs in the third, which proved to be the difference in the game.
Ethel made it 2-1 in the fifth when Colin White singled and scored on an error. Andrew Rankin doubled in an insurance run for Puckett in the sixth.
Colin White finished up for Ethel, allowing the one run on two hits, with four strikeouts and three walks in 3.2innings while pitching to his twin brother. He also picked a runner off base.
“He has a move to first that is crazy,” Schuster said.
The Tigers' other hits were a double by Weaver and a triple by Rone with one out in the seventh, but he was stranded when Union reliever Stone Batia retired the final two batters.
Matthew Boszor pitched the first five innings for Puckett, allowing two hits, with 10 strikeouts and two walks.
“We ended up playing two pretty good games,” Schuster said. “Puckett is a pretty good team.”
Ethel was scheduled to play Louisville Tuesday. If the game was rained out, Ethel will host a doubleheader with Louisville Friday, beginning at 4:30.
The Tigers play Winona and South Panola at Winona Saturday.
“We're just growing up,” said Schuster, who added “We're going to be a lot better in April than we are now because we have so many sophomores.”
