By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
OAK GROVE – After Petal won an unscheduled rehearsal over Oak Grove on Saturday in the Pine Belt’s most intense high school baseball rivalry, the Warriors came back on Monday to win the game that mattered.
Oak Grove got a dominant pitching performance from senior right-hander Turner Swistak and generated just enough offense to take a sloppy 3-2 victory in the Region 5-6A opener for both teams at Harry Breland Field.
The Warriors improved to 9-1 overall, getting back on track after Saturday’s 9-3 loss in the championship game of the Rex Adidas Deep South Tournament. Petal (6-2 overall) had a six-game winning streak snapped in the loss.
“I’ll start by saying I’m glad Turner Swistak is on my team,” said Oak Grove coach Chris McCardle. “He did a really good job for us, and we knew he would. Just a sloppy game, on both sides.”
Indeed, Oak Grove had five errors, while Petal committed six. The Warriors were able to overcome their miscues, but the Panthers’ mistakes led to two of Oak Grove’s three runs.
“You can’t beat a team like Oak Grove with six errors,” said Petal coach Shane Kelly. “We gave them too many opportunities to score runs.”
And Oak Grove didn’t need many chances the way Swistak performed on the mound. The senior right-hander has carried the Warrior staff in the absence of last season’s ace, senior Luke Lyon, who has yet to pitch this season while he recovers from an early-season injury.
Swistak (2-0) went the distance, allowing just three hits and one earned run. He struck out 11 batters and walked just one.
“I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while,” said Swistak. “It’s always a good atmosphere whenever we play them. They competed at the plate, but I was able to command my pitches, and get my curveball over for strikes in situations where I needed them.”
Swistak had not allowed an earned run in three previous appearances this season, totaling 11 innings. That streak remained intact through the first five innings, as Petal’s first run came after the Warriors committed three errors In the top of the first inning.
Oak Grove came right back in the bottom of the first inning with a run off Petal starter Bobby Magee.
Senior DeeJay Booth snacked Magee’s first pitch of the night for a double, went to third on a slow roller to second and scored on an alert play after Swistak grounded out to the pitcher.
“We had games all last week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and Coach told me I needed to set the table for us and set the tempo,” said Booth, who also had a single in the second. “The plan was be aggressive at the plate and be aggressive on the basepaths, just be aggressive overall.”
Three Petal errors in the third led to the go-ahead run for Oak Grove, and a dropped third strike on what would have been the third out of the fourth gave Swistak a chance to drive home Booth with the Warriors’ third run
With two out, Booth drew a walk and took second when Liam Briethaupt beat out a dropped third strike. Swistak followed with an opposite-field single to right field.
“We had that last-minute game with them Saturday, and all I saw were off-speed pitches,” said Swistak.
“I worked in the cage during pregame, worked on shortening my swing to go up the middle or go the other way. He actually gave me a fastball and I was able to get it into the gap.”
Magee (1-2) went five innings for Petal, allowing five hits. The junior right-hander struck out five and walked two.
“Bobby’s been strong for us on the mound,” said Kelly. “He’s a kid who throws hard, but he also pitches to contact and throws a lot of strikes. He relies on his defense, but he’s also a power pitcher.
“I thought he handled how our defense played very well. He didn’t show any emotion and let it get to him. He did his job of getting outs; we’ve just got to do a better job behind him.”
On the other hand, Swistak helped himself defensively by picking off a runner at first base after a leadoff single in the fourth. However, he finally allowed an earned run in the sixth.
Panther junior catcher Eli Britt delivered a one-out single to right, courtesy runner Michael Windham went to second on a groundout and scored when senior Logan Walters punched a single just inside the bag at first.
Petal got the tying run to third after two were out in the seventh, when pinch-hitter Colby Carlisle reached on an error. Windham, pinch-running for Carlisle, stole second and went to third when the throw from the plate skipped into the outfield.
But Swistak was able to get the final out on a grounder back to the box.
Swistak and the Warriors will get some pitching help when Lyon returns in a couple of weeks. He’s been held out due to some inflammation in the rotator cuff of his right (throwing) shoulder.
“Luke is doing his rehab right now, and we’re planning on his first start the week after spring break when we play Meridian (March 24),” said McCardle. “He’s looked good. We need him at the end (of the season), not at the beginning.
“We get him back, then our pitching staff will be pretty deep, so I feel good about that. We’ve just got to find a way to score a few more runs, and we definitely have to play better defense.”
The Warriors and Panthers will play the second game of the series at 7 p.m. Friday at Panther Field in Petal.
Prep Baseball Linescore
Monday at Harry Breland Field
Oak Grove 3, Petal 2
Petal 100 001 0 – 2 3 6
OG 101 100 x – 3 5 5
PETAL (6-2, 0-1 in 5-6A): Eli Britt 1B; Logan Walters 2 1B. LP – Bobby Magee (1-2). Also pitching – Seth Bailey.
OAK GROVE (9-1, 1-0 in 5-6A): DeeJay Booth 2B, 1B; Turner Swistak 1B; Zach Little 1B; Tristan Lee 1B. WP – Turner Swistak (2-0), 11 Ks.
