During a recent trip to Covington, La., with his father and uncle, 10-year-old pitcher Gage Kennedy was clocked at 58 miles per hour.
There were no radar guns at Edgewood Park on Friday night, but Kennedy was spectacular as he helped Walthall County shut down McComb in a 4-0 opening round game of the Dixie Youth Baseball 10-year-old District 6 Tournament.
Kennedy tossed a complete game, one-hitter with six strikeouts.
“His control was good and our hitting was good,” said Gage Kennedy’s uncle Tommy Kennedy, who is Walthall County’s coach. “This is the first time we’ve beat McComb from Walthall County.”
The only hit Kennedy allowed was a single by Braxton Cooksey in the second inning. Walthall County had only three hits off McComb’s trio of pitchers, which included Cayden Larrimore, Brady Johnson and Aaron Artigues, but it was enough to notch four runs and secure the win.
In the bottom of the first inning, Walthall County got on the board when Brady Warner walked and came around to score on Gage Kennedy’s single.
Walthall County didn’t notch a hit until the fourth when Ken James ripped a two-out, two-run double to the right center field wall to push the lead to 3-0. Walthall County pushed across its final run in the fifth on a wild pitch.
“Whether it was 1-0 or 4-0, you can’t win if you don’t score,” McComb coach Pender Johnson said. “We did not hit the ball and when we did hit, it was straight to somebody.”
Because Kennedy pitched more than four innings, he can’t pitch for 36 hours, per DYB rules. Walthall County will need Kennedy’s best effort Monday night after a 21-8 loss Saturday night to Summit. Summit punched its ticket to Tuesday’s championship game while Walthall County faces McComb on Monday night in an elimination game.
Meanwhile, McComb stayed alive with a 12-8 win over Pine Hills in an elimination game earlier Saturday.
McComb found itself down 7-2 after two innings against Pine Hills, but bounced back with 10-straight runs.
“We were kind of dragging the first two innings coming off that loss of last night (against Walthall County),” Pender Johnson said.
Brady Johnson was dominant in his three innings of relief. Johnson took over in the third inning for starter Preston Alexander and struck out seven of the nine batters he faced en route to three scoreless innings.
Braswell Ervin relieved Johnson in the sixth to seal the victory.
Summit advanced to Saturday’s winner’s bracket game against Walthall County following a 15-8 victory over Pine Hills.
Summit led 9-0 after two innings and almost blew the huge lead, but a five-run sixth inning helped seal the win.
“They got flat-footed … and it came back and got them,” Summit coach Samuel Roberts said. “At 10 years old, you never know what’s going to happen. You don’t know what side of the bed they are going to wake up on.”
Malik Leonard led Summit offensively with three hits, three runs scored and two RBIs. Nicholas West had two hits, two RBIs and scored a run, and Eric Spurlock was 2 for 2 with an RBI and a run scored. Bryson Garner, Brayden Huguley, Sam Etheridge and Zach Stinson all had a hit for Summit, who totaled 10 hits on the night.
“We came out hitting the ball good the first two innings and then we died off,” Roberts said. “Pitching kind of struggled and we picked it back up in the top of the sixth, really.”
Garner, Lenard and Edric Lewis all pitched for Summit.
Brady Smith and D’Maris Weathersby pitched for Pine Hills. Slade Toler and Thomas Vannoy led Pine Hills with two hits each.
