OXFORD — The Oxford High School baseball team used a solid pitching combination of Steven Whitfield and Jason Barber on Monday night to earn a 3-1 victory against Starkville in game three of their Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A North State playoff series.
The victory helped Oxford (24-7) rally from a game one loss and advance to the North State semifinals against the winner of the Neshoba Central-Hernando series.
Starkville ends its season at 16-15.
Whitfield pitched five innings and allowed two hits (Starkville’s only ones of the game) and one run. He walked one and struck out four. Barber came on after Whitfield allowed a double to Max Bartlett that put runners on second and third base with no outs. But Barber induced a grounder back to the pitcher, picked the runner off third, and escaped the jam by getting a grounder to second base.
Oxford added an insurance run in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a hit by pitch, sacrifice bunt, a groundout, and a pinch-hit single by Chadwick Lamar.
Bartlett pitched a complete game for the Yellow Jackets. He allowed four hits and three runs (two earned). He walked two and struck out two.
Oxford scored all the runs it needed in the bottom of the first. Matthew Webb singled and Brooks Krouse reached on an error. With two outs, Jack McClure walked. Barber’s two-run single gave the Chargers a lead their didn’t relinquish.
Starkville scored in the third. Tanner Jones was hit by a pitch and Matthew Oxford reached on an error. Jalen Campbell singled with one out to load the bases. Bryton Conley’s sacrifice fly cut the lead in half, but Whitfield got Bartlett to line out to shortstop to end the inning.
Starkville went 1-2-3 in the seventh.
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