Magnolia appears to be reaching its baseball peak at the right time after claiming its fourth consecutive 4A-8 Conference win Tuesday afternoon.
Bobby Beeson’s team will go after its fifth and sixth league victory when they host Watson Chapel at 4:30 p.m. today in a make-up game at Panther Field and entertain Monticello at 5 p.m. on Friday. Other victories have included a pair of wins over Hamburg and a 9-7 road victory against Warren.
The conference title may not be decided until the regular season finale when the Panthers (11-4, 7-2 4A-8) play at league-leading Camden Fairview (13-4, 9-2 4A-8) on Friday, April 23. The Cardinals won the first meeting 5-4 on March 30.
On Tuesday against Crossett, Magnolia held a 5-0 advantage in the third inning but had to hold off the Eagles as they won 8-5.
Seth Edwards had a good day on the mound, striking out four of the first 10 batters he faced and sitting the Eagles down in order on three separate occasions.
“Seth has been a man for us all year. I’ve been telling the team that when Seth pitches like that, we have two No. 1’s. I don’t think he had his best stuff today, but he battled by mixing his speed well and rotating his fast ball on both sides of the plate,” said Beeson. “They kind of got to him a little bit and they scored two in the fifth, but a lot of that was due to mental errors on our part.”
After a scoreless first two innings, Edwards was hit by a pitch at the plate to give the Panthers their first runner on base. Jason Thomas reached base on a error following a bunt and Tanner Edwards rounded the bases with an unconventional three-run RBI effort was aided by two more Crossett throwing errors.
Before the inning ended, Dalen Blanchard reached second when an infielder dropped the ball and Tanner Nielsen followed with an RBI double. The Panthers ended up scoring five runs as the Eagles committed six errors during the frame.
The Eagles, scoring once in the fourth and twice in the fifth, closed the gap to 5-3.
In the bottom half of the fifth, the Panthers loaded the bases with no outs on a pair singles and a walk, but was unable to cross the plate as Cade Browning, Seth Edwards and Jayson Thomas went down in order.
Magnolia loaded the bases again in the sixth and managed to score two runs. Tanner Edwards and Eli Fields started with singles, followed by Dalen Blanchard being hit by a pitch. Nielsen, with his third hit, had a RBI single which was followed later by a RBI single from Zander Taylor. Browning had a sacrifice RBI before the inning ended.
Hunter Buford took the mound in the seventh, but was pulled after giving up two hits, two runs and a walk. He also hit a Crossett batter. With two outs, Nielsen was called on to close the game.
Beeson praised the defensive play of his team and pointed out a couple of key moments.
“Tanner Edwards made a remarkable play at short stop. Since we made that switch to put him there two games ago, he has been phenomenal. Another big play was Thomas in left-field throwing that kid out at home plate. That was a huge play in the game, because you never knows what happens if that run scores,” stated Beeson. The Panthers were leading 5-3 and Crossett had two runners on base when the play was made.
The coach said Nielsen, who led with three hits, has been Magnolia’s “come-through” guy all season. Tanner Edwards had a pair of hits and Beeson said other guys had some clutch hits during the contest.