For Wood Forest Bank, this season has been all about keeping the same routine.
Keeping the same batting order and holding practice the same day every week have keyed the team’s game day successes. On Friday, the team’s routine paid dividends with the biggest win of all.
Wood Forest Bank overcame a 3-0 deficit to beat Ervin Appraisal 13-3 in the McComb Dixie Youth Baseball Coach Pitch 7- to 8-year-old championship at Edgewood Park.
“We had batting practice on Thursday like we did all season, then we had it again before the game (Friday),” Wood Forest assistant coach Tommy Myers said. “Repetition is what baseball is all about.”
Evidently, it’s an essentially big part of winning baseball.
Wood Forest (14-4) tallied a seven-run second inning to take the lead for good, then added four more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. The final outburst caused the game to be halted due to the 10-run mercy rule.
Trailing 3-1, Wood Forest got its rally started on Hayes Lee’s one-out single to left field. After Mason Bigner’s infield pop fly landed on the first-base line for a single, Christian Myers beat out an infield single that scored Lee to cut the margin to 3-2.
Bigner came home with the tying run on R.J. Strickland’s solid single to left field. Jacks Dowdy followed with a single to center that plated Myers and put Wood Forest in front 4-3.
Anthony Durr then singled to load the bases, and Aaron Artigues stroked a single to left to plate Strickland and Dowdy for a 6-3 advantage.
Garrett Noll and Wilkins Dowdy chipped in RBI singles, and Wood Forest scored the maximum seven runs allowed by the league in one inning, increasing the lead to 8-3.
Wood Forest added to its lead in the third when Roman Barnes lined a single to center, went to second on Lee’s infield groundout and scored on Myers’ two-out infield single to second base to make it 9-3.
The first four Wood Forest batters singled to open the decisive fourth inning.
Jacks Dowdy led off with a single to left and scored on Durr’s double to right-center field. Durr took third on the throw home and scored on Artigues’ single to center that pushed the lead to 11-3.
Noll followed with a line-drive single to center that advanced Artigues to second. The runners advanced to second and third on Wilkins Dowdy’s infield groundout, and Artigues scored when C.J. Jackson legged out an infield single.
Noll jogged home with the final run on Roman Barnes’ grounder back to the pitching mound.
Ervin Appraisal (9-8) coach Tim Roberts said his team simply had trouble putting the bats on the ball.
“Our bats were very, very flat,” Roberts said. “We got out of our routine. We usually practice once a week. It was very difficult to do that with all the vacations kids have with their families.
“It was a good year,” Roberts added. “We went further than we were supposed to.”
After holding near the .500 mark most of the season, Ervin Appraisal upset Doo More Drains in the league semifinals on Monday night to reach the championship.
It appeared in the early going Friday that Ervin Appraisal would again be the team to beat by posting a three-run first inning.
With one out, Micah Weeks singled to center and went to third on Oliver Smith’s single to center. Smith strolled into second on the throw to third base.
Braswell Ervin followed with a single to center that plated both runners for a 2-0 advantage.
One out later, Brody Gaudin roped a single to center that plated Ervin for the 3-0 cushion.
Wood Forest tallied its first run in the bottom of the first inning when Durr tripled to right field with one out and scored on Artigues’ single to left.
