Somewhere at 8 a.m. Saturday while everyone else was either still sleeping or drinking coffee and eating breakfast, Minden’s Crimson Tide was taking cuts.

Maybe even earlier than that.

The Tide’s 2-0 loss to Vidalia on Friday night left MHS head coach Dean Francis so frustrated with his team’s lack of offense that he had to search for a vacant field either in Vidalia or Natchez to get some extra work in before the team’s two games on Saturday.

It may have worked, but that game Friday night with the Vikings was definitely the most exciting game of the weekend.

Francis, however, didn’t like it because ace pitcher Riley Hollingsworth’s 16-strikeout, three-hit performance went by the wayside. Vidalia right-hander Mac Ware tossed a one-hitter and struck out 11.

It’s been a nagging problem for the Tide. Hollingsworth, a LSU-Eunice signee, has struck out 33 batters his last two outings but has received zilch in the run support department.

&uot;We won a tournament last week with 32 hits in four ball games,&uot; Francis said. &uot;It’s just frustrating. Riley gets on the mound, and I think my kids relax. I can’t pinpoint what it is. They have to play ball, and it’s tough to get kids to realize that.&uot;

The contest was the epitome of a pitchers’ duel with Hollingsworth and Ware just dominating the contest. The Vikings maybe haven’t seen someone that dominating in quite a while with Hollingsworth hitting 90 with the heater early in the game and coming with hard curves and sliders regardless of the count.

But give it up for Ware, the guy who went out there and really rose to the occasion.

&uot;He (Hollingsworth) was throwing high 80s and 91 (mph),&uot; said Vidalia infielder Brett Hinson, who jumped on a Hollingsworth curveball in the fourth for the game’s first hit. &uot;But Mac settled down. He was throwing his game right there. He had his A game.&uot;

The game had just four hits, but three of them stood up for the Vikings in the win. Hollingsworth had the Crimson Tide’s only hit, an lazy infield single.

&uot;You won’t see many better high school baseball games than that from the pitching end,&uot; Vidalia head coach Johnny Lee Hoffpauir said. &uot;Mac matched him pitch for pitch and did an outstanding job. I’m proud of the way our kids played. They never got down and kept battling. Good things happened.&uot;

It was the first game Ware used his improved curveball after VHS coaches dropped his arm angle a bit. It worked, and the senior hurler used that with an impressive fastball to keep Minden off the scoreboard and get out of jams in the fourth and fifth innings.

But he got some help in the fourth when Jeffrey Anderson made a nice grab at the wall in center on a fly ball from Hollingsworth. He made the grab, bounced off fence and made a perfect throw to second to hold both runners from advancing more than one base each on the play.

That

was the second out of the inning, and Ware got Ace Davis to strike out to end the fourth.

&uot;Jeffrey Anderson’s play in center field &045; that was the difference in the ball game,&uot; Hoffpauir said. &uot;Then he came in and got the big double (in the bottom half). We just battled.&uot;

You’ve still got to give it up for Hollingsworth, who was just dominating despite giving up the two runs on three consecutive doubles in the fourth. The tall, skinny right-hander was equally as intimidating as impressive, and he was throwing breaking pitches regardless of the count &045; once getting a curveball over the plate for a called third strike on a full count.

&uot;He’s going to make somebody a good pitcher,&uot; Francis said. &uot;He’ll throw his game, and that’s how he is. It’s disappointing he didn’t get any run support, but that’s baseball. That’s the confidence I have in him calling pitches &045; you can call 3-2 sliders and 3-2 curveballs and even 3-0 curveballs. I have that much confidence in his pitches, and he does, too.&uot;

NAGGING PAIN &045; The game Cathedral got in on Friday was a good chance for hard-throwing sophomore Corey Walker to get some work in, and he had a better showing this time around.

The week prior in the VHS tournament he didn’t have the pop on his fastball that he’s accustomed to having, but that was due to some soreness in his arm. On Saturday he kicked it up a notch, threw two shutout innings of relief and faced just seven batters while striking out three.

He came in relief of Garrett Jones in the Wave’s 11-4 win over Mangham.

&uot;I wasn’t going to throw him but two innings,&uot; Cathedral head coach Craig Beesley said. &uot;I wanted to give Garrett a start. Corey had a little more pop on his fastball. He looked like he was more comfortable on the mound, and I wanted to see him pitch two innings. I wanted to see how he came back after sitting on the bench for 10 or 15 minutes.&uot;

NON-DISTRICT DISTRICT &045; Don’t be confused by the schedule. The Vidalia Vikings are hosting District 4-2A foe Crowville today and will go up there for another contest before doing it all over again later in the season.

Today’s game, however, won’t count in the district standings, and neither will the first game at Crowville. Hoffpauir and Crowville head coach Jimmy Comeaux scheduled the games since no other teams were available to schedule at this time of year.

In the three-team district, the games that count are still a ways away.

&uot;It’s because our district is so small,&uot; Hoffpauir said of 4-2A, which also includes Lake Providence. &uot;We don’t start district play until the second week of April. We don’t have anybody to play. I called all around the state looking for people to play. I want to play as good a people we can play.&uot;