March 20, 2009

Bales toes hill & wins at D'Iberville 5-1

by Carey Meitzler

D'Iberville--Jared Bales is headed to USM in the fall by virtue of his exploits as a catcher and hitter.  On Friday night in D'Iberville,

Bales unleashed a pitching performance that demonstrates his versatility as he handcuffed the homestanding Warriors in Picayune's

5-1 win to keep the Maroon Tide unbeaten in Region 8-4A play.

With Bales fastball topping out around 89-90 mph throughout the game, he also had a hand in the manufacturing of the Maroon Tide's

first run.  Bales was hit by a pitch from the Warriors Jake Miller to start the top of the fourth.  Jonathan Hickman replaced Bales

as a courtesy runner and was moved to second base on Brandon Jurich's sacrifice bunt.   A pickoff attempt of Hickman at second

base ended up in center field allowing Hickman to move to third base.  Hunter Gill bunted the ball down the first base line where

Miller grabbed the ball, tagged out Gill, and then threw home trying to get Hickman, but Hickman slide safely ahead of the tag to

give the Maroon Tide a 1-0 lead.

D'Iberville answered in the bottom of the inning.  With one out, Jacoby Bell's grounder got threw the middle for a single.  He moved

to second on a sacrifice bunt from Miller.   Drew Bosarge, the Warriors RBI leader on the year, singled to right field scoring Bell

to tie the game at 1-1.

In the sixth, Picayune scored four runs by sending nine batters to the plate.  Bryce Ladner reached safely when his third strike got

by the catcher and Ladner sprinted to first base.  Jake Riser sacrificed Ladner to second base with a bunt.  With first base open,

Bales was intentionally walked and was replaced once again by Hickman.  Jurich's grounder to short was bobbled and the bases

were loaded with one out.  Ricky Rimkus was inserted as a pinch runner for Jurich.  Hunter Gill's single just over the head of the

second baseman brought in Ladner for a 2-1 lead.  Evan Nichelson singled to center bringing in Hickman for a 3-1 margin. 

Sophomore Braxton Lee fouled off four two strike pitches from Miller before Lee hit a sharp grounder back to Miller.  Miller's

throw to home in an attempt to start a home to first double play was low and got by the catcher rolling all the way to the back stop

allowing both Rimkus and Gill to score for a 5-1 lead.

Bales retired six of the next seven batters to close out the game.  Bales scattered 6 hits, walked just one, and struck out 5 batters.

Nichelson helped the cause with three outstanding plays at first base on throws from his fellow infielders.

Picayune (10-1, 6-0) will play another Region 8-4A unbeaten team when they host St Stanislaus on Tuesday and then travel to

St Stanislaus on Friday of next week.