March 24, 2009

Bearcats' Babin baffles Lady Tide 9-0

by Carey Meitzler

Picayune--Bayleigh Babin continued her mastery in the circle with a 14 strikeout performance in Long Beach's 9-0 win over

the Picayune Lady Tide.  Babin's record is now 11-1 on the season and her team's record stands at 15-3-1 and 6-0 in

Region 8-4A.

Picayune got off to a great start when Jessie Frierson set down Long Beach three up and three down in the top of the first inning.

Then, the Lady Tide got their first two runners on base in the bottom of the first with Mallorie Mixon reaching on a infield single

and Tiffany Devore slapped a single to left field.   However, it took Babin just 11 pitches to get out of the inning as she fanned

Taylor Seals, Hillary Dickens, and Tiffany Reed to put a damper on the Lady Tide's short lived excitement.

With Babin, a Gulf Coast Community College signee, keeping the Lady Tide in check, her teammates used timely hitting and

Lady Tide fielding miscues to post their first three runs. In the third, a single and a walk put two runners aboard to start the

inning. After a flyout and a strikeout, another infield single and a single to right field made it 2-0.  Long Beach got their third run

on a Lady Tide throwing error on a grounder to third that would have ended the inning.

Long Beach added two more runs in the fourth and chased starter Jessie Frierson who was replaced by Hillary Dickens who

finished the game surrending four runs in the last three plus innings.

Picayune (8-13, 1-6) will play at D'Iberville on Wednesday in a game originally slated for Thursday.

Photo by John Young

Tiffany Devore makes a running catch against Long Beach.