This past weekend in Southaven, Mississippi at the Mid-South Super NIT was the normal nail-biter the Dallas Tigers are accustom to. Tight games, back-and-forth, come from behind victories, and athletic plays all in a typical weekend.
Notable victories in the Mid-South Super NIT quarter finals, semi-finals, and finals were a rematch with the Louisiana Tigers, Memphis Tigers, and Dulin’s Dodgers.
In the quarter finals, the Dallas Tigers found themselves down 6-0 at the end of the 2nd inning because of defensive miscues and Louisiana Tigers right hander on the mound dealing early. But as the game would have it, our Dallas Tigers started chipping away beginning with a solo homer in the 3rd by Tommy Delaney to make it 6-1. Then another solo homerun in the 4th by Trenton Shaw made it 6-2. Then in the 5th inning with runners on, Jayson Jones and Walker Polk hit back-to-back doubles to bring the score to 6-4. Ultimately with the bases loaded and 2 outs, Jacob Devenny hits a hard single up the middle to score 2 and tie the game 6-6.
With time expired, the teams went into tiebreaker format, bases loaded and no outs. In the top of the 6th (extra inning) with bases loaded and no outs, Josh Hoover takes the mound and strikes out the first to batters faced and gets a ground ball to third baseman Jayson Jones for the final out. It would be Owen Peck’s walk-off line drive single to center that would put the Dallas Tigers advancing to the semi-finals.
The championship game versus Dulin’s Dodgers, was an offensive slugfest. Great hitters on both teams were difficult to contain. The Tigers struck first with 1 run in the 2nd inning, but the Dodgers struck back with 4 runs of their own in the same inning (4-1). The score was 7-3 after 3 innings. In the 4th and 5th innings, Josh Hoover was able to hold the Dodgers to no runs while his team tacked on more runs to narrow the lead and ultimately tie it up. Being down 7-5 headed into the 6th inning, the Tigers rallied and put on 6 runs as result of walk, 4 hits, 1 sac fly, wild pitch and a 2 run bomb by Trenton Shaw. With time expired in the bottom of the 6th and score 11-7, we needed the last 3 outs. The Dodgers gave some fight in the last inning scoring 2 runs, but the game ultimately ended with Josh Hoover hurling a full count called third strike for the win! 11-9 was the final score.
“We are just hard to beat, period. I sound like a proud coach, but this has happened many times. Our guys just have heart and fight that you can’t teach,” said coach Chad Polk. “We certainly had our share of defensive miscues that got us in those situations, but this is not a perfect game and sometimes you have to make plays as a team to overcome errors, mistake pitches, etc. It takes a whole roster to do that. Every one of our players contributed to the success of these games.”
In other notes, the Dallas Tigers Baseball Club won both the 13U & 14U Major divisions of this Mid-South Super NIT in Southaven, Mississippi. Way to go Tigers!!
