By Jake Martin

The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ — Trinity Episcopal Day School and Adams County Christian School experienced early bumps in the road, losing to Amite County High School and Copiah Academy, respectively, Saturday afternoon in a tournament hosted by ACCS.

Wild pitches allowed five Amite runs to cross home plate in a 7-2 victory against Trinity.

The Saints fell behind early by giving up four unearned runs in the first inning. The game was called in the bottom of the fifth inning with Amite batting because the game had a time limit.

“Take away the passed balls and the score is 2-2 in the last inning, and that’s just something we have to get together with chemistry,” Rogel said. “(Quinton Logan) is tough to catch because he has next level stuff.”

Logan pitched three innings for the Saints, walking three and striking out nine. He gave up five unearned runs before Stewart Mallory relieved him in the fourth. Logan had the only RBI for Trinity with an RBI single in the third inning.

“He’s on an 8-hour turnaround from basketball season,” Rogel said. “He’s been throwing bullpen the last couple of weeks. We had him on a pitch count tonight.”

Amite’s Jake Haywood pitched four innings and gave up only one earned run and fanned eight on strikes.

Mallory and Caleb Cross singled for the Saints, and though Trinity reduced the gap to 4-2 in the third inning, untimely errors would eliminate any possibility of mounting a comeback. Rogel believed the loss was a mix between the competition level and rust.

“That’s a good team,” Rogel said. “I think this is their fifth game and this is game one for us, so they’ve shaken off the rust. We haven’t yet.”

Later on that afternoon, ACCS had its fortune flipped. After taking a 4-1 lead on wild pitches and solid base running from Trey Fleming, Torrey Smith and Lester Wells, the Rebels gave up nine runs in the next ensuing innings to lose 10-4 after four innings played.

Head coach Richy Spears, like Rogel prior to him, had a pitch count on starting pitcher Luke Thomas. Thomas pitched 2.2 innings and allowed two earned runs, while striking out three. The Rebels struggled to relieve Thomas and a three-run inning, followed by a six-run fourth inning resulted in a loss for ACCS.

“There are about three things you’ve got to be able to do — pitch, hit and field,” Spears said. “You don’t execute all three of them, results aren’t going to be very good.”

Spears, however, wasn’t pointing the blame after loss. He admitted his team hasn’t had much time to prepare and his club is experiencing growing pains. He expected it after not being able to get practice time in before the season began.

“The way I looked at it — this is our third day of practice, since we went far in basketball,” Spears said.

ACCS’ season began on Friday, and the Rebels lost 3-0 and 16-2 to Centreville in a double header.

Fleming had an RBI single and Wells had a single for the Rebels in the loss to Copiah.

Copiah’s Zane Frazier was awarded the win after coming in with the game tied 4-4. Rebels’ Bradley Jones was credited the loss in relief.