After waiting to see what his team could do, this was a pleasant surprise for McComb American assistant coach Scott Smith.
For the past week, Smith and the rest of the McComb American League All-Stars coaches waited to see how good their team truly was. On Tuesday night, they got a resounding answer.
The McComb American League All-Stars pounded out 18 hits and took advantage of 10 Walthall All-Star County errors to take the opener of the McComb Dixie Youth Baseball 8-year-olds Subdivision 6 All-Star Baseball Tournament, 22-7 in five innings at Edgewood Park.
The double-elimination tournament continues today at 6 p.m.
“We hit the ball better than we thought we would,” said Smith, who watched McComb American jump out with a five-run first inning and coast from there. “I think we hit the ball really well.”
The McComb American All-Stars also were aided by Walthall County, which committed at least two errors in each inning.
With his team in the losers’ bracket, Walthall County head coach Ken Jones knows his team is in trouble.
“We need help,” Jones said. “We didn’t play. We didn’t play. We left a lot of outs on the field. We hit the ball good. We just didn’t make plays in the field.”
The Walthall County All-Stars gave their coach hope when they took advantage of two McComb errors in the top of the first to take an early lead.
With two out, Quaderius Cook hit an infield grounder that was misplayed for the first error. After Kendarius James also reached on a fielding error, De’Marrcon Ginn doubled into the left-center field gap to score Cook for the 1-0 advantage.
That lead, however, turned out to be short-lived.
Preston Alexander led off the bottom of the first with a single that was booted in the outfield, allowing him to advance to second.
After the next two hitters were retired, it appeared Walthall County would escape any damage. But Braswell Ervin followed with a solid single to center field that sent Alexander to third. Ervin took second on the late throw to third base. Braxton Cooksey roped a single to center that plated Alexander with the tying run.
Wilkins Dowdy followed with a grounder that skipped past the first baseman. The error scored Ervin for a 2-1 lead.
The margin went to 4-1 on Garrett Noll’s two-run double to deep center that scored Cooksey and Dowdy. Oliver Smith capped the inning with a double to deep left that scored Noll for a 5-1 lead.
The first three McComb hitters reached base to open the bottom of the second, two of them on errors. Garrett Maxwell’s infield grounder was booted for the first miscue. He scored on Brady Cooksey’s double to left for a 6-1 lead. Cooksey came around to score from second when Payton Boyd’s infield grounder was fielded cleanly, but the throw to first was dropped for the frame’s second error to make it 7-1.
Walthall County came up with a big five-run rally in the third to make it a one-run game. As it did in the first inning, most of the damage came with two outs.
Keith Sanford led off with a single, but was still at first base with two outs.
Bracey Morgan then reached base on a fielding error that sent Sanford to third. Sanford scored when Cook’s grounder was misplayed for another error. The miscue cut the margin to 7-2 and put runners on second and third.
James legged out an infield single that plated Morgan to make it 7-3, and Cook scored on another infield error to slice the margin to 7-4.
Tyler Ham’s line-drive single to left scored James to make it 7-5, and a throwing to the plate on Ham’s hit allowed Ginn to come home and cut the deficit to 7-6.
McComb, however, pulled away with a seven-run third inning to build a 14-6 lead.
The frame was highlighted by two-run doubles from Gaudin and Brady Cooksey. Dowdy added an RBI triple and Braxton Cooksey chipped in a run-scoring single in the inning. Another run was scored on a Walthall County error.
Walthall County tallied its final run in the fourth when Seth Wicker reached on an error, went to third on Gage Kennedy’s single to left and scored on Aven Stagner’s infield groundout.
McComb tacked on seven more runs in the fourth inning, keyed by two-run doubles from Noll and Jacks Dowdy. Gaudin added an RBI single and two other runs scored on errors.
The American League champs capped the game’s scoring in the fifth. Brady Cooksey singled with one out, went to second on Boyd’s groundout and scored on Alexander’s single to right field.
Despite his team’s easy win, Smith said his team cannot be considered the favorite to win the tournament.
“I still think McComb National is going to be our toughest competition,” he said. “It could come down to between us and them.”
