Ethel ran its baseball winning streak to 11 with 12-9 and 13-3 victories over Sebastopol last week. The Tigers had 25 hits in the two games, including six doubles and two home runs.
Coach Chris Schuster said the 13-3 win was the team's best game of the season. “KT (Adams) pitched it well, we played good defense behind him and hitting is contagious, they say. We were hitting the ball hard.”
The 12-9 game saw both teams score in every inning except Sebastopol in the top of the seventh. The Bobcats took a 9-7 lead with two runs in the top of the sixth, but Ethel answered with five in the bottom of the inning.
The inning started with doubles by Kameron McCuller and Brady White. After Cyrus Rone and West Bishop walked, Rone intentially, Tyler Weaver singled in two runs. Two more scored on an error.
McCuller had a double and two singles, Rone homered, Weaver singled and doubled and White had a double. Jess Johnson had three hits for Sebastopol.
It was a sloppy game, with 15 errors, 10 by Sebastopol, resulting in seven unearned runs for Sebastopol and five for Ethel.
Adams allowed four hits and three runs, with 10 strikeouts in the 13-3 game. Gabe Cain led a 16-hit attack with a homer, two singles, four RBIs and three runs scored. Weaver had two doubles and a single and scored three times. Brady White doubled twice, Rone had three hits, and Colin White two.
Ethel jumped out early with five runs in the top of the first that included Cain's three-run homer and doubles Brady White and Weaver. After Sebastopol scored its three runs in the bottom of the first, Ethel tacked on four in the second, three in the fourth and closed out the game under the 10-run role with a run in the sixth on a single by Rone and a double by Weaver.
The victories gave Ethel an 8-0 record in Region 5-1A. Sebastopol and French Camp were each 6-2. The Tigers had a home game with French Camp Tuesday and will be at French Camp Thursday, needing one victory for the region championship.
Ethel will close out the regular season next week with a home game against Scott Central for Senior Night Monday and a road game with Choctaw County Tuesday. Both are 2A teams.
“I try to bring in teams that give us an opportunity to get better. To see different things. To see different pitching. To get us ready for the playoffs,” Schuster said.
The 1A playoffs begin April 22 with Ethel playing a team from 6-1A in a three-game series.
“We know to win a state championship you have to go through Resurrection. You have to go through Taylorsville. The only way you are going to get better is to play team that will make you better.”
Resurrection defeated Ethel in the third round of the playoffs last year before losing to Tupelo Christian in the championship series. Taylorsville won 2A but dropped down to 1A this year. Resurrection and Taylorsville are currently one and two in 1A state rankings by the website Scorebook Live, and like Ethel, both are in the south half of the state.
