The McComb Tigers left their baseball game Friday night still seeking their first victory of the season, but head coach Brian Eby left with a feeling that elusive first win isn’t too far off.
The Tigers played it close Friday night until a four-run seventh inning allowed Loyd Star to pull away for a 14-8 victory at McComb’s Rotary Field.
It was a closer contest than the Tigers’ 14-1 road loss at Loyd Star.
“We improved,” Eby said. “Our pitching’s gotten better. Our enthusiasm, our hitting, our defense, they’ve all improved.
“Our overall work ethic is just tremendous,” Eby added. “We’re getting better by leaps and bounds. If it keeps up, it’ll result in wins.”
Trailing 3-0, McComb (0-5) rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the second.
After Dominic Cotton singled and Greg Swim was hit by a pitch to open the inning, Alex Woodall’s sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third.
Walter Jordan roped a single to right field that scored Cotton to make it 3-1. Jordan advanced to second when the Loyd Star third baseman failed to cleanly field the throw from right field.
Jordan and Swim both came home one out later on Jake Simpson’s line-drive single to right to knot the game, 3-3.
The tie didn’t last long, however, as Loyd Star broke out on top with a five-run third inning capped by Marquis Hughes’ opposite-field, three-run home run to right field that made it 8-3.
The Tigers again rallied, this time with a three-run bottom of the third. With one out, Marquell legged out an infield single on a slow roller to the shortstop, then scored on Adrian Brown’s hit-and-run double to the left-center field gap.
Brown advanced to third on Cotton’s flyout to right and came home on Swim’s infield single that just avoided Loyd Star third baseman Tyler Case’s glove to make it 8-5. Woodall capped the inning with an RBI double to deep right-center field that scored Swim and pulled the Tigers to within 8-6.
After a single, a throwing error and a walk loaded the bases with two out in the top of the fourth, Seth Farmer was hit by a pitch to plate another run and stretch Loyd Star’s lead to 9-6.
Case’s home run to lead off the top of the fifth pushed Loyd Star’s lead to 10-6.
McComb answered with Brown’s leadoff home run in the bottom of the fifth off reliever Marquis Hayes to make it 10-7.
The Tigers tallied an unearned run in the sixth. Jordan walked to lead off the frame. After Kicardarius Wells was hit by a pitch with two outs, Jordan scored when Loyd Star catcher Logan Smith’s attempted pickoff throw to third sailed into left field, pulling McComb to within 10-8.
But Loyd Star tallied four runs in the seventh off Marquell Carroll, the Tigers’ third pitcher of the game. The visitors touched Carroll for four hits in the deciding seventh.
Jake Simpson tossed the first five innings for McComb. He surrendered 10 runs — six earned — on 12 hits. He walked one, struck out three and hit a batter.
Brown pitched a scoreless sixth inning for the Tigers, but did not return for the seventh due to a strained lower back.
