Natchez 9s roll in Game 1

By From staff reports | The Natchez Democrat

Published Tuesday, July 1, 2008

GALLMAN — The Natchez 9-year-old All-Stars are one win away from advancing to the state tournament after a surprising 16-1 win over Copiah Monday night at Copiah Academy at the district tournament.

With the win, Natchez took a one game to none lead over Copiah in the best-of-three series and will look to win the series today at 6:30 p.m. Game 2 will take place at Carroll-Jones Field at Duncan Park.

“Copiah’s got a really good team, so we’ve got our work cut out for us,” Natchez coach Gary Farmer said. “They weren’t expecting us to hit as well as we did. We really hit the ball well tonight.”

Led by Jacob Jenkins and Gage Dossett, the Natchez 9-year-olds pounded out 16 hits. The game went just four innings due to the 10-run rule. Jenkins went 3-for-3 with two doubles while Dossett was 3-for-3 with a triple and two doubles.

Natchez took control of the game early with four runs in the top of the first inning and five runs in the top of the second. By the time the third inning was over, Copiah was trailing 16-0. Copiah did avoid being shutout by scoring its only run of the game in the bottom of the fourth.

“Coming out stroking the ball loosened them up,” Farmer said. “They started hitting the ball and never looked back.”

Winning pitcher Craig Bradley and Reed White combined to pitch a four-hitter. Bradley pitched the first two innings, striking out one and allowing one hit. White gave up three hits in his two innings on the mound.

“Craig came out and pitched well, hit his spots and had the Copiah batters off-balanced,” Farmer said. “Reed came out and threw strikes. The defense backed him up.”

Of Natchez’s 16 hits, eight went for extra bases. In addition to what Dossett and Jenkins did at the plate, Bradley, Christian Day and Jace Calcote each had a double.