Dawgs claim three baseball victories

Franklin County High School’s varsity Bulldogs baseball team picked up a trio of wins last week following its spring break hiatus — downing North Pike, 5-4, after upending Port Gibson, 13-0 and 20-1, in separate district-level contests.

The victories lifted FC to 10-4 overall on the season.

FC 5, NORTH PIKE 4

Franklin County scored enough runs early in its Saturday, March 25 contest to outlast a late comeback attempt by North Pike and claimed a 5-4 win over the Jaguars.

The Bulldogs scored a trio of runs in the first inning and two more in the third to hold a 5-0 advantage, but North Pike plated two runs apiece in the fourth and fifth innings to pull to within one run of the lead.

In total, Franklin County had six hits and five strike outs in the contest while committing one error and North Pike recorded five hits with 11 strike outs and no errors.

In the bottom of the first, FC’s Donovan Moore led off with a triple and scored on a ground out by Larry Pernell for the 1-0 lead.

Dalton Meadows stroked a solo home run to boost the Diamond Dawgs’ lead to 2-0, and Quez Rancifer doubled in the stanza and scored his team’s third run on a two-out double by Noah McCormick.

In the bottom of the third, Meadows was hit by a pitch and Rancifer singled— with both plating a run apiece on separate passed balls by North Pike for a 5-0 lead.

The Jaguars scored two in the top of the fourth, and FC could do little to answer in the bottom of the frame as Jamari Tolliver led off with a single and Peyton Hebert and Moore both drew walks.

The trio would all be caught stealing by the North Pike defense to end any potential scoring threat.

The top of the fifth saw two more runs scored by the Jaguars thanks to a single and a home run.

Neither team scored again the remainder of the way and FC held on for the victory.

In terms of hitting, FC’s Rancifer was 2-of-3 with two runs scored while Moore, Meadows, McCormick and Tolliver were all 1-of-2.

Meadows scored two runs, had an RBI and struck out once; Moore scored one run; McCormick earned an RBI; and Tolliver struck out once.

FC’s Pernell and Dakota Chisholm were both 0-of-3 with the former striking out twice and the latter being fanned once.

Terrance Fields was 0-for-2 in at-bats while Hebert and Carter Spring were both 0-of-1 with Hebert drawing a walk in the contest.

In terms of pitching, FC’s Meadows worked four-and-two-thirds innings and wound up throwing a total of 84 pitches to North Pike batters.

He gave up four hits, including a home run, and four runs (three earned) while striking out seven and walking two.

Spring worked two-and-a-third innings in relief and tossed 34 pitches where he surrendered one hit while sending four down on strikes and issuing one walk.

Meadows’ pitch-to-strike ratio was 84-49 (58.3 percent) while Spring’s tally was 34-22 (64.7 percent).

FC 13, PORT GIBSON 0

In a game moved up by one day due to the forecast of inclement weather on Friday, March 24, Franklin County scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the second and ultimately sealed the deal thanks to an explosion of 11 runs in the third to take a 13-0 win over the visiting Port Gibson Blue Waves at the Swamp.

Chisholm started the bottom of the second by reaching on an error and McCormick was hit by a pitch with the duo both scoring runs as the former plated on a Port Gibson error and the latter came home on a sacrifice fly by Moore for the 2-0 lead headed into the third frame.

The bottom of the third saw 16 FC batters come to the plate with Meadows being hit by a pitch and scoring his team’s third run on a follow-up double by Rancifer.

From there, Chisholm, McCormick and Fields all drew walks, which pushed Rancifer across for FC’s fourth run.

With the bases still loaded, Tolliver was hit by a Port Gibson pitch and Chisholm scored the fifth run for the Bulldogs. Moore also drew a walk to bring McCormick home to push FC out to a 6-0 advantage.

Pernell stroked a triple to score three runs — bringing Fields, Tolliver and Moore home — for the 9-0 lead. Pernell would also score on a subsequent double by Meadows.

Meadows plated his team’s 11th run on a single by Chisholm, and Rancifer, who earned a walk prior to Chisholm’s hit, scored on a Blue Waves’ error.

Chisholm would add FC’s 13th run on a two-out single by McCormick.

In all, the Diamond Dawgs had seven hits and only two strike outs against Port Gibson as Pernell went 2-of-3 — a single and a double — with a team-high three RBI along with a run scored.

Meadows was 1-of-1 with a double, two runs scored and an RBI, and McCormick was also 1-of-1 with a single, a walk and two runs coming home.

Rancifer, Chisholm and Tolliver were all 1-of-2 in the hitting department with Rancifer collecting a double along with two runs, a walk and an RBI.

Chisholm plated a team-high three runs with a walk and an RBI, and Tolliver scored a run and had an RBI along with a strike out.

Fields and Judson Arnold were both 0-of-1 against Port Gibson pitching with Fields scoring one run, walking twice and getting an RBI. Arnold had a walk in the contest.

Tolliver worked four innings on the mound for the Bulldogs and threw 63 pitches in the winning effort. He gave up two hits while striking out two and walking two. His pitch-to-strike ratio was 63-36 (57.1 percent).

FC 20, PORT GIBSON 1

On Tuesday, March 21, Franklin County claimed a convincing 20-1 road win over Port Gibson by scoring in three of the game’s four innings played.

The Bulldogs, on five hits in the contest, recorded two runs in the top of the first before adding eight in the top of the third and 10 more in the fourth while the Blue Waves’ lone run came in the bottom of the third frame.

Port Gibson recorded one hit in the outing while committing four errors, and FC was credited with only one miscue.

Meadows had a 1-of-1 performance at the plate for the Bulldogs with a home run, three runs scored, three RBI and three walks.

Fields went 2-of-3 — two singles — and plated two runs while collecting two RBI, a walk and a strike out.

Chisholm was 2-of-4 — a pair of singles — and came home twice with an RBI to his credit.

While none of the other Bulldogs garnered a hit, the line-up made the most of its opportunities with Moore, Pernell, Rancifer, McCormick and Tolliver all going 0-of-2.

Moore scored a run, had two walks and two RBI; Pernell scored three runs and accounted for three RBI; and Rancifer plated twice with two walks and a strike out.

McCormick came home two times and had two walks and an RBI, and Tolliver tacked on three runs, two RBI and a walk.

Spring, Hebert and Arnold all went 0-of-1 with Spring scoring a run on three walks and a strike out and Arnold struck out one.

As pitcher, Spring went three-and-two-thirds innings in the mercy rule-shortened game and scattered one run on one hit while striking out three batters and issuing two walks.

In all, his pitch-to-strike ratio was 53-29 (54.7 percent).

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UPCOMING GAMES

Franklin County varsity baseball returns to action on Tuesday, April 4 at Tylertown and will return home on Thursday, April 6 for a showdown against Bogue Chitto. FC will host Tylertown on Friday, April 7.