The Brookhaven Cougars did just what head coach Casey Edwards wanted them to do after a game one upset loss at River Oaks on Tuesday. Edwards and the Cougars decided to swing the bats and just hit hard in the critical games two and three yesterday at Brookhaven. The aggressive hitting paid off as Brookhaven swept both games to eliminate River Oaks and advance to round two to take on perennial powerhouse Central Private in a best of three games series next week.
Game one….
River Oaks wasted little time in grabbing an early lead as lead off hitter Vincent Moore drove a full count pitch over the right field wall to put the Mustang’s up early 1-0. Unlike their loss on Tuesday Brookhaven responded in their half of the first inning by exploding with six runs. Tripp Jolly’s single to left field scored Brent Henderson to tie the game at 1-1. With the bases loaded Donavan Lorraine’s hard infield shot scored Bubba Keene and Lorraine reached base on an error. Brookhaven added their third run as Hunter Franklin drew a walk with the bases loaded and then Tyler Parvin drilled a double to left field to score Hunter McCollough and Lorraine. The Cougars increased their lead to 6-1 as
Jacob Phillips brought in another run on a fielder’s choice.
Brookhaven added to their lead in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Donavan Lorraine and Hunter Franklin each hit singles and Tyler Parvin did the same to drive in Lorraine and give the Cougars a 7-1 cushion. Following a wild pitch and runners on 2nd and 3rd Brent Henderson nailed a single to left field to score courtesy runner Landon Nettles. Brookhaven made it 9-1 on a Bubba Keene one out fly ball to deep center to score Parvin.
River Oaks managed to generate two runs in the top half of the 4th inning as a bases loaded infield single from Darryl Barnes scored PJ Bendenbender and Jacob Byrd but Brookhaven starter Tripp Jolly would retire 9 of the next 12 Mustang hitters to close out the game and give Brookhaven a 9-3 win to tie the series at 1-1.
Jolly went the distance for the Cougars allowing 7 hits and striking out 8. Jolly also helped his cause at the plate with two singles and a double.
Game two….
Brookhaven jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one inning in game two. Will Gatlin’s double to center field scored Brent Henderson and after Tripp Jolly drew a walk Hunter McCollough’s infield hit scored Gatlin to put the Cougar’s up 2-0. Jolly then scored from 3rd base on a wild pitch for a 3-0 Brookhaven advantage.
Brookhaven added two more runs in the 2nd inning when senior Will Gatlin crushed a John Rockett 3-1 pitch off the scoreboard in left field with Bubba Keene on base.
River Oaks got a run in the 3rd inning as Vincent Moore sent a two out 1-1 pitch over the center field wall. The Mustang’s looked primed to do serious damage in the inning as Ryan MacGregor singled and John Rockett drew a walk. A fielding error from an infield grounder by PJ Bendenbender loaded the bases but senior starter Tyler Parvin go
t out off the jam by striking out Darryl Barnes to preserve a 5-1 Cougar lead.
River Oaks quieted the Brookhaven crowd in the top of the 4th inning when sophomore Ryan MacGregor sent a bases loaded shot over the right field wall for a grand slam to tie the game 5-5.
Brookhaven went back ahead in their half of the inning as River Oaks reliever Ryan MacGregor found himself in some serious trouble. With the bases loaded MacGregor walked in Will Gatlin and Tripp Jolly to put Brookhaven back on top at 7-5 before striking out Hunter Franklin to end the 4th inning.
Brookhaven broke the game open in the 5th inning as the first four batters reached base. Bubba Keene did damage as he drilled a double to score Will Lucas and Brent Henderson scored from 3rd base on a wild pitch by reliever Casey Rahn. With runners on 2nd and 3rd base Tripp Jolly’s grounder scored Bubba Keene to give Brookhaven a 10-5 lead. Brookhaven made it 11-5 on a Hunter McCullough single that scored Will Gatlin. 
Brookhaven went on to take a 13-6 win with Tyler Parvin going 5 innings giving up 7 hits and picking up 4 strikeouts to earn the win.
Senior Will Gatlin collected a homer and two doubles (4 RBI) while both Brent Henderson and Hunter McCollough each had two singles in the game.
Ryan MacGregor, Vincent Moore and Stephen Bragg all had homers for River Oaks.
Brookhaven improves to 23-6 on the season while River Oaks finishes their campaign at 16-10.
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Post game comments:
Brookhaven head coach Casey Edwards
“Today we made up our minds that we were going to hit and hit it hard all day and that’s something we didn’t do in game one. Our goal today was to hit everything hard and if they fielded clean and threw us out, props to them. We needed to come out today and be aggressive and we knew that if we got the lead early our pitching would carry us.”
“I think we went over there (River Oaks) Tuesday just a little too relaxed, we didn’t know much about them other than what we had heard. We thought they were a caliber of team that we didn’t have to play our best but still come away with a win and we got shocked.”
“Tripp Jolly is our best pitcher. He’s been a little tender after his last few starts but I hope he can be ready to start on Monday, we’ll wait and see. It’s been Jolly, Parvin and McCollough most of the year but we’ll see how everybody feels through the weekend and make a judgment call then as to who we’ll start in game one.”
River Oaks head coach Michael Johnston
“I thought our guys fought hard from the beginning of the series. Brookhaven may have been a little over confident for game one at our place and we caught them by surprise. They weren’t quite ready and we played well.”
“Today we didn’t play as well; we made a couple of errors, pitching mistakes and some bases on balls. We have some good young kids and I think we’ll be back, we have a prosperous future. The next couple of years for sure. Some of the younger kids came through tonight for us and I think defensively we’re usually pretty solid but we didn’t do as well tonight.”
“We play in a pretty good baseball district but we need to play in more regular season tournaments like the Mississippi schools do. We would love to get invited to some tournaments next season, we’ll go almost anywhere. Brookhaven is a very good team and the type of program we’re striving to be.”
