Porters Chapel nips Huntington, forcing Game 3 in title series

Published 12:00 am Saturday, May 13, 2006

VICKSBURG &8212; If you couldn&8217;t see the frustration build in Michael Busby&8217;s face, all you had to do was watch what he did after popping up with the bases loaded and no outs in a tie ball game.

He reared back and fired one fastball after another against Huntington&8217;s batters. He came with the occasional curveball when they were preparing for another heater. And when he came up to bat in the 10th, he finished it off.

Busby&8217;s laser shot over the fence in center gave Porters Chapel a 3-2 win in 10 innings over the Hounds Friday to force a Game 3 in the Class A state championship series. Game time is 8 p.m. today in Ferriday.

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&8220;That was kind of aggravating,&8221; Busby said of the Eagles&8217; bases-loaded, no-outs situation where they came up empty as the game went into extra innings. &8220;I couldn&8217;t hit it a little farther out there. I made an error in the sixth inning, and I kind of felt like after that I had to redeem myself. We should have never been in that situation in the first place &8212; we should have won it 2-1.&8221;

That last of the seventh gave new life to the Hounds, who were struggling at the plate and finished the game with only three hits. Defense and Huston Eliser&8217;s pitching kept the Hounds in the game until the senior right-hander worked Busby to a 3-1 count to lead off the 10th.

Eliser threw a breaking pitch, and Busby crushed it.

&8220;Hat&8217;s off to my Michael Busby,&8221; said Eliser, who had thrown only 103 pitches through nine innings. &8220;He&8217;s a good player. I fed him one down the middle, and he did what you&8217;re supposed to do with it. I&8217;d thrown it all night. But when you&8217;re in that situation, you&8217;ve got to bow up.&8221;

The shot erased nine innings of frustration for the Eagles, who left the bases loaded twice off Eliser and hit a number of balls hard. In that seventh, Busby flied out to second before Trey Corbett scooped up Chris Mixon grounder on the grass at short and fired to Ples Arthur at home for the second out.

Eliser got cleanup hitter Moose Carney to swing at a curveball down and away for the third strike to end the