Yazoo City’s early season struggle continued over the weekend when they dropped games to St. Joe, Canton, and Ridgeland, dropping their record to 0-6 on the year.
Against St. Joe, the conditions were wet and sloppy, something not entirely unique to the Indians and Bruins, but problematic nonetheless.
The Bruins jumped out to a 6-0 lead after four innings, and it looked as if they would run away with it.
The Indians had an offensive explosion in the top of the fifth inning, however, and scored six runs to tie it up at 6-6.
St. Joe came right back with two runs in the bottom of the fifth, but Yazoo City countered with two runs of their own in the sixth to tie things up at 8-8.
Despite their efforts, the Indians gave up three more runs in the bottom of the sixth, and they were unable to it in the seventh.
St. Joe won the contest 11-8.
Yazoo City High School baseball coach Gerald Peyton thought it was his team’s best showing of the year.
“I was pleased with the overall performance in this game,” Peyton said. “We just have to cut down on mental mistakes and physical errors. Korey Price pitched a really good game. Take away the errors, they probably would not have scored over three runs.”
On the following morning, the Indians faced off with Ridgeland High School, and for a while, it seemed as if things had turned completely around.
After three complete innings, Yazoo City led the Titans 2-0.
A three-run home run in the bottom of the fourth inning gave the Titans their first lead of the game, and it snowballed from there.
After the sixth inning, the Titans were named victorious by a score of 12-2.
Peyton feels that his team needs to clean things up to be successful.
“I am not using the excuse of not being able to practice on the field anymore,” Peyton said. “We have faced some pretty decent pitching, so it is now time for the bats to crank up. We had too many costly errors in this game. When we commit over seven errors in a game, we can’t expect to win and should not win. If we can limit the errors to under two a game, I think our pitching may be able to give us a chance to stay in games and win.”
Once Ridgeland was named victorious, the Indians loaded up and raced over to Canton for another game.
Since Canton’s field was in no condition to be played on due to the rain, the two teams met on a makeshift field at the multipurpose complex.
Cordarious Brown was masterful on the mound early for the Indians, holding Canton scoreless for five innings.
In the sixth inning, however, things took a turn for the worst.
A pair of singles for Canton set the stage for a three-run home run to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead, their first of the day.
A couple of RBI doubles extended Canton’s lead to 5-2, a score that would soon become the final.
It was closest game the Indians have played thus far, but it was still a loss.
And nothing hurts Peyton quite like losses.
“It hurts me to my core to lose,” Peyton said. “I can take losing if we play hard and give everything we have on the field.”
Still, the improvement from game to game has been visible.
But there is still some ways to go.
To reach their full potential, the Indians have to get more production from their seniors.
Peyton has thrown down a challenge towards his oldest group of players.
He wants his seniors to be the leaders that the team desperately needs.
“I need my seniors to lead this team,” Peyton said. “It looks like the juniors are the ones leading to this point. If I can get the juniors and seniors to lead together, we should be okay in district play and for the rest of the season. This includes going hard in practice to make everyone else better. I told them I would not want to go down saying what we could have done. Everything has to be done on the field between the white lines. Hopefully these losses and experiences have hit home with these players if they want to bring home a district title.”
Yazoo City will return to the diamond on Wednesday when they face Murrah and Yazoo County at Yazoo County High School.
The first pitch against Murrah is set for 1 p.m.
