9U MidSouth SuperNIT - Opening Play

- By Ernie Rapiere

Friday May 14, 2010 – Snowden Grove Park, Southaven, Mississippi. The Mudcats of Covington, Tennessee (ranked #13 nationally by TravelBallSelect.com) opened pool play at the Mid South Super NIT against a solid Memphis Travelers team. The Travelers made it clear that they came ready to play as they came to bat in the bottom of the 2^nd inning with the score tied at 3 all.

MSsnit-Mudcats1

Pictured above, the Mudcats are set to break the tie in their comeback 9 run inning as the Travelers pitcher launches a toss down the lane.

The Travelers quickly loaded the bases with no outs and broke the tie on a wild pitch and wouldn’t let up until the inning was over and they held a comfortable 7-3 lead. But the Mudcats showed their resiliency as they answered with 9 runs in the top of the 3^rd blowing the game wide open and taking a 12-7 lead. The Travelers came to bat in the bottom of the 3^rd and tried to mount a comeback as they had close the Mudcats lead to 12-8 and had runners in scoring position with 1 out. But Coach Brad Warmath made a quick change on the mound, bringing in Cameron Barlow to the mound to shutdown the Travelers’ threat. And that is exactly what this young mad did. He wasted no time throwing strikes and getting defensive help from his teammates to quickly shut down the scoring threat. So, credit Barlow not only with a successful close, be he also had big hits to drive in key runs to put his team ahead in the score column for good.

In other games, the #12 ranked PSA Red Sox wasted no time run ruling the BL Bulldogs of Birmingham, Alabama by a score of 15-0.

MSsnit-DesotoStix3 Also, TEAM Desoto got homeruns and great play from top to bottom to backup the excellent pitching from Hunter Ray (pictured left and below) who came into to relieve in the 2^nd inning and pitched 3 solid shutout innings and closed down the Mississippi Buzz to a score of 8-4.

Pictured below, Hunter Rays tosses strike 3 for the final out to give his team an 8-4 win on Friday night in their opening round of 9U division play at the Mid South Super NIT.

MSsnit-DesotoStix1