STARKVILLE – Starkville Academy spent practice Wednesday working on being more aggressive and putting the ball in play with two strikes.
Thursday night at Volunteer Field, that work paid off.
Starkville Academy made amends for a Tuesday night loss by beating arch rival Heritage Academy 7-3 in a Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA, District 2 matchup.
“We tried to do a better job with two strikes tonight,” Starkville Academy senior outfielder Codie Futral. “We acted like every pitch in the game was a first pitch. We just went to the plate with an aggressive mind-set and it paid off. We showed what we can do when we play aggressive baseball like that.”
Starkville Academy first-year coach Brooks Roberts through aggression was the missing ingredient in Tuesday night’s 6-2 loss in Columbus.
“Wednesday, we had a really good day of practice,” Roberts said. “We talked about wanting to hit. I thought there were too many strikes we took Tuesday night, especially with two-strike counts. We talked about two-strike hitting and how that is different. You have to have your mind right when you go into the batter’s box. We didn’t force the issue Tuesday night. Putting the ball in play is huge. It helps you win games.”
If the Volunteers (3-4, 1-1) needed a spark, they quickly got their minds right after Carter Roach launched a two-run home run over the extended wall in left field. That round-tripper sent the Volunteers to a 2-0 lead in the third inning.
“Carter’s home run was the game-changer,” Futral said. “Once he hit that, everything fell into place for us. It gave us some momentum and the hits started falling for everybody.”
The lead was short-lived as the Patriots (6-12, 1-1) tied the game on home runs by Brandon Jones and Toby Young in the fourth inning.
Those were the few mistakes made by Starkville Academy sophomore pitcher Taylor Arnold.
Roberts called Arnold “fantastic” “awesome” and “brilliant” when summing up the pitching performance. Arnold was lifted after one-out walk in the sixth inning, after allowing only three hits in the game.
“Taylor was aware of the type of performance we needed from him on the mound,” Roberts said. “He was all-around great. Set the tone. Gave us a spark. We knew if we could just add some runs to what he was doing out there, we would be fine.”
The Volunteers broke open a tight contest by scoring three times in the fifth inning to take a 6-2 lead.
Landen Rogers, Will Miller and Futral each had run-scoring hits in that-bat. All of the runs came with two outs.
“We really did a great job with two outs,” Roach said. “We have struggled some in that area this year. We are just beginning to get everybody back now and we see what we can do when we play to our potential. This wasn’t the perfect game but it certainly showed what we are capable of doing when everybody plays well and does their part.”
Starkville Academy finished with nine hits. Rogers and Futral were the lone multiple hitters. The hits were spread throughout the lineup, with Dillon Carrell adding a huge RBI-double for an insurance run in the sixth inning. Nason Heflin finished the contest on the mound for the Volunteers. Arnold and Heflin combined on a three-hitter with five strikeouts.
“This team is getting there,” Futral said. “All year, we have been trying to play a complete game. If we put our offense, defense and pitching together, we can be a tough team to beat. This was much better than Tuesday night. We were playing aggressively and having more fun. It showed because we scored the last four innings of the game. If we can keep doing that, we can win a lot of games,”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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