Blue Devils take title
Published 7:00 am Thursday, April 17, 2014
CARRIERE — Pearl River Central repeated as district champs on the baseball diamond Tuesday night.
The Blue Devils just accomplished the feat in new surroundings.
After capturing the league crown in Division 7-5A last season, PRC was moved to Region 6-5A before the school year began due to reclassification.
The Blue Devils have made the transition a smooth one, however, beating visiting Brookhaven 5-0 to move to a perfect 8-0 in district play and securing the league crown.
PRC is 18-2 overall, and will earn an opening round bye in the upcoming Class 5A South State playoffs.
“This is the first senior class at PRC that has made the playoffs in baseball all four years in high school and I am extremely proud of them,.” Blue Devils head coach Neil Walther, in his seventh season at the helm of PRC, said.
Senior southpaw Chance Putnam hurled a one-hit complete game shutout, allowing just a single in the seventh inning in guiding the Blue Devils to the Win.
Putnam struck out nine hitters and was helped out by several outstanding plays from the Devil middle infield of Dylan Spiers and Zach Evans, who would turn three double plays and take away hits on several other balls. Putnam moves to 5-0 on the year.
PRC would score its first run in the second inning when Spiers led off with a single and eventually scored on an error by the Panther shortstop.
In the third inning Christian Travis scored the second run of the game on an infield groundout
PRC padded its lead in the fourth with a pair of runs, when Wesley Mitchell tripled into right field and scored one pitch later on an RBI-single by Travis.
The Blue Devils scored their fifth and final run in the bottom of the fifth inning when Jeshua Lee led off the inning with a single and would later score on a wild pitch.
PRC left 11 runners on base in six innings. Spiers and Mitchell each had a pair of hits to pace PRC at the plate.
It is just the third district baseball title in PRC school history.