MONTICELLO – The Enterprise Yellow Jackets claimed two wins and the host Lawrence County Cougars received their third straight tournament win in the final day of the Southwest Mississippi Spring Break Baseball Classic, played Monday through Thursday, at Lawrence County High School.

     In Thursday’s first game, Enterprise edged Lincoln County rival West Lincoln, 5-3. Next, the Yellow Jackets handled Hazlehurst by a 7-2 margin. In the final game of the tournament, Lawrence County defeated Hazlehurst 10-4.

     Thursday’s game wrapped up a very busy four days at Jimmie Davis Park.  Twelve area high school baseball teams played a total of 16 games during their spring break week. Participating teams included Mendenhall, Hazlehurst, Wesson, North Pike, South Pike, McComb, Brookhaven, Bogue Chitto, Enterprise, Loyd Star, West Lincoln and host Lawrence County. It was the second straight year that Lawrence County has hosted such a spring break tournament.

     “We had a great time,” said tournament organizer and LCHS head coach Cory Keyes. “We couldn’t have had better weather, or a better group of players, coaches and fans to come to our campus and our ballpark. It was a great week.”

Enterprise 5, West Lincoln 3

     The first game of the day featured a dandy pitchers’ duel between Enterprise’s Jackson Cole and West Lincoln’s Jacob Lea. Both went the distance.  In getting the win, Cole gave up 4 hits and struck out 7. Lea gave up 4 hits and struck out 3. Both gave up just 2 free passes.

     Enterprise grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, as Dylan Smith hit a run-scoring double. West Lincoln answered with 2 in the bottom of the second, as Landry Barrilleaux and Tanner Boutwell both had hits. 

     It remained deadlocked at 2-2 until the top of the fifth, when Enterprise’s Grant Brister singled and scored on Blake Fugler’s sacrifice fly. The Yellow Jackets stretched their lead to 5-2 in the top of the seventh on Logan Killingsworth’s 2-run double. West Lincoln scored an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh. 

     Smith had 2 doubles to lead Enterprise. Tyler Moak and Jonathan Buckley also had hits for the Bears.

Enterprise 7, Hazlehurst 2

     Moments after beating West Lincoln, Smith put down his bat and took to the pitchers’ mound against Hazlehurst. He threw a very strong game, shutting the Indians out until the seventh inning. Smith gave up 3 hits and struck out 6. 

     Enterprise scored 2 in the second, 2 in the third, and 3 in the sixth to put away Hazlehurst. Catcher Chance Owens led the Yellow Jackets with a triple and a single. Logan Killingsworth, Conner Burke and Leighton Jordan also had hits.

     DeVonte McKenzie, Xavian Thedford and Ladarrius Williams had hits for Hazlehurst. Marcus Jordan and Kenny Coleman combined to pitch a credible game for the Indians.

Lawrence Co. 10, Hazlehurst 4

     In the final game of the tournament, Hazlehurst jumped on Lawrence County starter Matt Patterson with 3 straight hits, including DeVonte McKenzie’s 3-run homer, to start the game. After that, however, Patterson settled in and limited the Indians to just 1 run on 1 hit. He struck out 6. Reid Graves pitched the final inning, allowing just an infield single.

     Lawrence County battled back from that early deficit with 2 runs in the bottom of the first. Jackson Wall had a single and Matt Patterson, a run-scoring double. LCHS got 2 more in the second, with Wall banging a 2-out double. A Rusty Rowells double went wasted in the third, but the Cougars got 2 in the fourth, courtesy of a Jordan Grayson triple and a Wall 2-run homer. 

     In the fifth, Will Jackson singled and was driven home by a Cody Case single. In the sixth, back-to-back doubles by Hunter Stephens and Patterson provided the final runs of the game.

     Jarvis Warner had 2 hits to lead the Indians. McKenzie, Marcus Jordan, Kurt Collins and Willie Ervin each had 1. Southpaw Arick Grayer started and threw a strong 4 and 2/3 innings for Hazlehurst. Jay Banks finished up.

     “We were down 3-0 after throwing just 8 pitches,” said Cougar coach Cory Keyes, whose team won for the sixth time in a row and improved to 6-4.

     “After that, we had a pretty good game. Matt came back and pitched well for us, and I thought their left-hander did a very good job. We finally got a few hits and pushed some runs across, but this wasn’t a very comfortable game until the very end.”

     “I know a lot of the people who visited our park the last few days live in The DAILY LEADER area,” said long-time LCHS assistant Craig Davis, “So I’d like to tell them one more time how honored we were to have all of them at our place.      “I hope our ballpark was a good place to spend a few hours of spring break.  We sure enjoyed it, and hope we get a chance to do it again someday.”