Diamond Dawgs pound Bogue Chitto, 16-4

Franklin County High School’s varsity baseball team clubbed 12 hits at home en route to a 16-4 win over Bogue Chitto on Monday, Feb. 28 at The Swamp.

In addition, Bulldogs’ pitcher Dalton Meadows worked four innings in the mercy-rule shortened game and limited the visiting squad to four runs on one hit while striking out nine and walking two.

Franklin moved to 4-2 on the season with Monday’s victory.

FC’s offense got things rolling immediately in the bottom of the first as Ridge Clanton drew a walk after being hit by a pitch.

Meadows and Noah McCormick both stroked ground ball singles toward third to load the bases.

Quez Rancifer then singled allowing Clanton to score the Dawgs’ first run of the game.

An error — one of six for Bogue Chitto — allowed Meadows to plate a second run.

Then, Terrance Fields launched a line-drive single to score both McCormick and Rancifer for a 4-0 advantage before the inning came to a close.

In the bottom of the second, Donovan Moore started things off with a double to center and stole third.

He scored on a one-out single to center by Meadows, who also came home on another Bogue Chitto error for a 6-0 lead.

McCormick singled and Rancifer reached on an error before Fields singled to push McCormick in for the Dawgs’ seventh run.

Larry Pernell hit into a fielder’s choice to score Rancifer and put Franklin in charge by an 8-0 margin.

Bogue Chitto scored four run in the top of the third in an attempt to keep things close, but the Diamond Dawgs exploded for seven more runs in the bottom of the same frame.

Moore led off by reaching on an error and Clanton got on board after reaching on a dropped third strike to put runners on the corners for FC.

Meadows flied out to right and Moore scored after tagging up to help Franklin open a 9-4 lead.

From there, McCormick singled and Rancifer walked to load the bases.

Another walk, this time issued to Fields, pushed Clanton in for his team’s 10th run.

A sacrifice fly by Pernell plated McCormick, who tagged up and took advantage of the opportunity to score.

Facing two outs in the latter half of the third, Dakota Chisholm drew a walk before Jamari Tolliver doubled to left, which scored Rancifer, Fields and Chisholm’s courtesy runner, JaMarlin Green, to boost FC’s lead to 14-4.

Tolliver worked his way into scoring position and came home as Moore reached on an error.

Franklin scored again in the bottom of the fourth after McCormick reached on a one-out error and Rancifer stroked a double.

Fields singled to center to score McCormick for the Dawgs’ 16th run and the contest was ended one-third of the way through the stanza.

Fields had a stellar night at the plate with a 3-for-3 performance with one run scored, a walk and a season-high five RBIs to his credit.

McCormick finished his night at bat with 3-for-4 effort and four runs scored.

Meadows supported his cause on the mound by going 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs.

Moore, Rancifer, Pernell and Tolliver all collected one hit each against Bogue Chitto.

Rancifer came home three times and was credited with one RBI while Moore, Clanton and Meadows all scored two runs apiece for Franklin.

In addition, Tolliver and Green both had one run each.
Tolliver recorded three RBIs and Pernell earned two in the win.

FC had only one strikeout during the entirety of the contest.

The Diamond Dawgs committed three errors and stranded five baserunners during the affair.

In terms of pitch-to-strikes ratio, Meadows — who claimed the win on the hill for Franklin County — was 76-44 with an overall strike percentage of 57.9.