North strikes out against Lamar in the opener
Luke Amerson dominated the mound against the North Eagles after weeks of injury kept him off the field.
Photo by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
The Lamar Silver Foxes got its playoff run off to a good start this past Wednesday, defeating the North Eagles 10-0 in five innings.
Behind superb pitching and just enough hitting, Lamar overwhelmed the Eagles, who looked completely out of place against the Silver Foxes.
Coming off an injury that has kept him from playing lately, let alone pitching, Luke Amerson, dominated the North batters, striking out 12, walking two and giving up just one hit in a complete five inning performance.
“Luke’s been out a few weeks with an injury,” Lamar head coach Adam Windham said. “We really didn’t know if we would get him back. He’s really limited to pitching with his injury, but he did a great job, he threw strikes and that is all that we can ask of him.”
Amerson was basically unhittable, striking out the first seven batters he faced; that lone hit by North came in the fifth on an accidental swing.
“I just threw strikes and the defense made plays,” Amerson said. “I really didn’t walk too many.”
“I threw a bunch of fastballs, didn’t really need the curveball too much. The fastball was on.”
Offensively, it was kind of a hit and miss for the Silver Foxes despite the lopsided score that resulted in the game ending early.
On the positive side, Lamar loaded the bases in the first four innings of game, scoring one run in the first, three runs in both the second and third inning, two runs in the fourth and the final run in the fifth.
But on the negative side, the Silver Foxes hit way too many pop ups, missing that one hit or so that could have made the game 20-0 instead of 10-0.
“We have to stop hitting so many fly balls,” Windham said. “If you hit fly balls, you’re going to get out no matter who you are playing. We told them after the game that we got to get on top of the ball, hit more groundballs, line drives. People are more prone to make mistakes if you get on top of the ball and hit it hard. We got to get out of the popping it up mode some.”
Daniel Galloway had the hardest hit of the game, crushing a double to the center field fence in the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring Rashard Coleman to end the game.
It was a perfect ending to the game as it was Galloway who got Lamar on the board in the first inning with a RBI single to center field.
Jadarius Munford was responsible for all three runs in the second inning for Lamar with a two-RBI single and a run scored due to heads up base running on a groundout that saw him score from second base.
The third inning saw three straight runs scored due to back-to-back walks and a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded and two outs.
Ace James had a RBI groundout in the fourth and later scored on a wild pitch after reaching on a North error.
Weekly Recap
Lamar won its other game of the week, defeating the Dixie Hornets on the road this past Friday 11-5 to advance to the district championship game, which will be played in Lamar.
