March 23, 2010

Hickman hurls Tide past PRC 5-2

by Carey Meitzler

Picayune--Jonathan Hickman worked out of jams in five of the seven innings he pitched and the result of his efforts gave

the Picayune Maroon Tide a much-needed Region win over Pearl River Central by a score of 5-2 at Picayune's Field of

Dreams.

With Blue Devils on first and second with one out in the top of the first, Hickman got a fly out to center and a strikeout to

get out of the inning.  After retiring PRC in order in the second, Hickman received some help from third baseman Brandon

Jurich who snagged a line drive and then threw to first baseman Kyle Beech to complete a double play catching a PRC

runner off first base.

Hickman got some runs from his teammates in the bottom of the third.  Braxton Lee reached on an infield single and moved

to second when the throw to first trying to get him out bounced off Lee's back into foul territory.  Eric Smith's sacrifice bunt

moved Lee to third and he scored on Jay Dedeaux's single to right. Brandon Jurich singled to right moving courtesy runner

Marvin Van Buren to third base.  Van Buren scored on Hickman's groundout to second base giving Picayune a 2-0 lead.

Hickman used two strikeouts on called third strikes to work his way out of the top of the fourth inning despite allowing

the Blue Devils their first run on Bull Mixon's single that scored Kevin Briggs who started the inning with a double off the

base of the wall in left field.

Picayune plated two more runs in bottom of the fourth taking advantage of a costly error by the Blue Devils.  With one out,

Kyle Beech hit a deep fly ball to left center that was dropped by the center fielder and with Beech hustling from the crack of

the bat, he raced all the way to third base with a head first slide just ahead of the relay throw from the shortstop.  Tevin Stubbs

laid down a perfect bunt allowing Beech to score.  Stubbs stole second base as he drew a pick off throw from Blue Devil

starter Ramsey Graham at first base and immediately took off toward second base beating the throw from the first baseman

to the shortstop.  Stubbs scored on Eric Smith's single to center giving Picayune a 4-1 lead.

In the top of the fifth inning, PRC loaded the bases with no outs, but catcher Jay Dedeaux's snap throw to third baseman

Jurich to pick off a Blue Devil runner at third base.  Kevin Briggs, who was batting when the pick off occurred, walked to

load the bases again. After a fly out for the second out, Ramsey Graham singled to left field scoring Aaron Lee to cut the

lead to 4-2.  Hickman induced the next batter to hit a grounder that Hickman fielded and threw to first to end the inning.

Picayune got a run in the bottom of the fifth.  Jurich singled to right to start the inning and moved to second on Hickman's

sacrifice bunt.  After a strikeout for the second out of the inning, the Maroon Tide got a huge break.  Drew Hedgepeth

swung at and missed a third strike, but the ball got away from the PRC catcher and bounced to the backstop.  Jurich

raced home all the way from second base just beating a tag from Graham who was covering home plate on the play.

Leading 5-2, Hickman allowed singles in the sixth and seventh, but his defense erased the runners with good plays behind

him.  With one out in the sixth and a runner on first, Jurich fielded a ground ball at third and threw to second base trying to

start a double play. The throw was in the dirt at second base, but freshman Nick Marble was able to scoop up the low

throw to get the second out of the inning on the force play.  Like he had done the inning before, Hickman induced another

grounder that he fielded and threw to first to end the inning.

With one out in the top of the seventh and a PRC runner at first, Hickman got another grounder that he fielded and this

time he threw to second base with shortstop Colton Lee covering to start a 1-6-3 double play to end the game.

Hickman allowed seven hits, walked three, and struck out four in going the distance on 100 pitches thrown.

Graham allowed ten hits, walked one, and struck out eight in the six inning he pitched with a pitch count of 84 pitches.

Jurich was 3 for 3 at the plate and Eric Smith was 2 for 2 with a walk and sacrifice bunt for the Maroon Tide.

Braxton Lee added two infield singles.

Briggs was 2 for 2 with two walks for PRC.

Picayune (4-8, 2-3) will travel to Carriere on Friday to take on the Blue Devils (7-5, 3-2) with JV action slated for 5:00pm

and Varsity to follow at 7:00pm.