BASEBALL: Mid-County moves on to Southwest Regional final

Published 7:59 pm Saturday, July 13, 2019

NEDERLAND — Mid-County has won each of its three games in the Babe Ruth 16- to 18-year-old Southwest Regional in three different fashions.

The host team jumped to a 9-0 lead after two innings and run-ruled Ascension Parish, Louisiana, in the opening round game Friday. That evening, the Nederland-based team padded a 4-3 lead with eight runs in the seventh against Petal, Mississippi.

Saturday afternoon, Mid-County was held to a single hit, but it still pushed across a run when it needed to most to back up Noah Gregory’s 13-strikeout pitching gem.

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A passed ball with two outs in the sixth inning allowed Omar Mascorro to plate the game-winning run in a 2-1 victory over Northwest Arkansas on Saturday afternoon, placing Mid-County in the championship round against either NWA or the winner of Saturday evening’s Del Rio-Petal game.

The losers’ bracket final has been rescheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday, with the championship final to start at 1:30 p.m., due to the threat of severe weather in the area. If a second championship game is necessary, the start time will be determined then.

Gregory threw 99 pitches with 64 of them strikes. He held Fayetteville-based Northwest Arkansas to one run on three hits.

Mid-County (8-0) tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth inning. The bases were loaded when Austin Schaper walked and Kamden Grant was hit by a pitch to advance Justin Smith to third. Mason Brown then took a hit from a pitch to send Smith home.

Fortune struck Mid-County again in the sixth when Omar Mascorro scored from third base on a wild pitch with two outs.

Northwest Arkansas had found two-out favor in the top of the second thanks to a wild pitch that allowed a run. Grant lined Mid-County’s lone hit in the bottom of that inning, a two-out double, but Brown flew out to end the scoring chance.

BABE RUTH 16-18

SOUTHWEST REGION

                                                                       At Nederland HS

Friday’s scores

Game 1: Mid-County 14, Ascension Parish, La., 0

Game 2: Northwest Arkansas 8, Del Rio 7

Game 3: Mid-County 12, Petal, Miss. 3

Saturday’s games

Game 4: Del Rio 14, Ascension Parish, La. 10

Game 5: Mid-County 2, Northwest Arkansas 1

Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 3 loser, 7 p.m.

Sunday’s games

Game 7: Northwest Arkansas vs. Game 6 winner, 11 a.m.

Game 8: Championship, 1:30 p.m. (second game, if necessary, TBA)

About I.C. Murrell

I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

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