Diamond Devils rout Tunica Academy 11-3

Diamond Devils rout Tunica Academy 11-3

Lefty freshman Watson tosses first win for West Memphis

WM School District The West Memphis Blue Devil baseball team got a great start from an allninth- grade battery and then relied on the veterans to provide the offense in an 11-3 victory Thursday night at Tilden Rodgers Complex over Tunica (Miss.) Academy.

With ninth-grade lefthander Gage Watson, making his first varsity start, throwing to fellow freshman Caleb Catt, the Blue Devils held down the Tunica offense and then made a six-run first inning stand up.

“It was really good for us to do that finally,” West Memphis first-year head coach Josh Fortner said of the first-inning uprising.

“That was our first big inning this year. The guys knew the (opposing pitcher’s) velocity was going to be down, so the plan was to drive the baseball early.” The Blue Devils (2-4-1) sent 12 men to the plate in the first inning and used RBI hits from Chavarris Adaway, senior Carlson Bennage, third baseman Ownes McConnell and Catt, while another run came from a bases-loaded walk to first baseman Cade Bell.

And that was all the Blue Devils needed against Tunica as Watson, brother of junior lefty Price Watson, who started in center field, was effective early with his fastball.

“Gage did a great job, coming in as a freshman,” said Fortner. “He was just competing his tail off, and that’s what I expect out of him.”

On an early-season pitch count, Watson was lifted after 2.2 innings, giving up three runs on only three hits.

Bennage came in and hurled the final 1.1 innings, showing a lot of moxie by pitching out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning. Three singles jammed the bases with just one out, but Bennage got the next Tunica hitter to pop to himself and he got out of the frame by inducing a fly to shortstop Mason Kearney.

“Carl is someone I’ve been on top of since Day One, but he’s the type of guy who can handle that,” Fortner stated. “This wasn’t anything that rattled him tonight.”

Adaway led off the Blue Devil second with an infield hit and he used his speed to produce the inning’s first run by stealing second and third and coming hom on an error by the catcher. McConnell added the frame’s other tally with an RBI double to deep left-center.

West Memphis added one with three more in the fourth inning on hits from ninth-grader Peyton Voyles and Kearney, who had two run-scoring hits on the night.

The Blue Devils will return to action Tuesday at home for the 5A-East Conference opener against Mountain Home. The doubleheader will begin at 4:30 p.m.

By Billy Woods