Kosciusko’s baseball team split its first two games in the MHSAA Class 4A state playoffs and was scheduled to play in an elimination game earlier this week.
The Whippets lost a 5-4 heartbreaker at Corinth last Friday in the first game of their best-of-three series with the Warriors. Kosciusko rebounded to take a 9-3 win at home on Saturday and was scheduled to play the if-necessary game to decide the series Monday of this week.
That contest had already been postponed at press time, however, and the two teams were to try again Tuesday. The season is over for the loser, while the winner moves on to face Caledonia in a second-round series that is currently scheduled for Friday-Saturday-Monday (April 27-28, 30).
Kosciusko entered this week with a record of 13-12 overall after splitting its last two regular-season games last week and also splitting the two games with Corinth.
The Whippets lost a 3-2 nail-biter at Magee last Monday before earning a win over Holmes County Tuesday.
At Magee, Micah Parker, Clark Dean, Justin Nunn and Jon Deason had the team’s only hits. Parker had an RBI, while Dean and Brandon Black each scored a run.
Seven Kosciusko pitchers combined to allow six hits and two earned runs.
In the first game of the playoff series at Corinth, Kosciusko scored twice each in the second and fifth innings and led 4-1 before the host Warriors rallied with four runs in their final at-bat.
Kosy lost despite out-hitting Corinth 9-7, as nine different Whippets had one hit.
Dean doubled and had an RBI, Walker Yuille had a double, and Deason and Logan Fancher both had a single, a run and an RBI.
Parker singled and scored; while Black, Nunn, Chase Morgan and Ethan Gowan all had singles. River Burrell scored once.
Morgan, the third of Kosciusko’s three pitchers, was tagged with the loss. The trio combined to give up seven hits and five earned runs while striking out three.
Saturday, the Whippets scored three times each in the third and fifth frames and never trailed in a 9-3 win over Corinth that kept their season alive.
Dean was 2-for-3 with an RBI; Morgan was 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI; Walker Yuille was 2-for-2 with two RBIs to lead the Whippets’ 10-hit attack.
Black singled, scored and drove in one; Fancher and Gowan both singled and scored twice; Nunn singled and scored; and Deason scored once and had an RBI.
Dean went the distance on the mound to earn the win, scattering seven hits and walking no one.
