Choctaws to face Trojans in title game

The last time Dyer County and Crockett County met it took a walk-off homer by B.A. Davis to seal the victory. On Tuesday the two respected teams met again, with the Choctaws holding off a late-inning rally by the Cavaliers and winning the ballgame 6-5, sending Dyer County to the finals against Dyersburg and earning a second consecutive berth to the regional tournament.

"Crockett County came out and played a good ballgame and I have a lot of respect for them now," said Choctaw skipper Preston Ozment.

Jordan Patterson took the mound against the Cavaliers and the right-hander cruised through the top half of the first, recording three straight groundouts to retire the side.

In the bottom half of the first inning, the Choctaws jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on RBI-singles by Dylan Haycraft and Derek Sims, but Dyer County still had trouble cashing in on runners in scoring position as the top seeded Choctaws stranded the bases loaded.

"We got to drive in more runs tomorrow and not leave so many guys on base," said Ozment.

Patterson cruised through his second inning of work, despite surrendering a leadoff walk to start the frame. The junior battled back to record two fielder's choices and a strikeout to get out of the inning without any damage done.

Dyer County went back to work in the bottom half of the second after one-out single by Chad Gammons, who later scored on a Shea Thomas rip up the middle, giving the Choctaws a 3-0 lead after two complete in the books.

Patterson continued his dominant pitching, blanking the Cavaliers through three innings in both the runs and hits columns of the scoreboard and sending things back over to his offense in the bottom half of the inning.

"JP pitched a good ballgame, he kept us in the lead and gave us a chance to win," said Ozment.

The Choctaws added two more runs in the third on a two-RBI double by Gammons to the right center gap, stretching the Dyer County lead to 5-0 after three down in the ballgame.

Crockett County finally got to Patterson in the top half of the fourth inning, scoring two runs on three hits including a two-RBI double by Cavalier Blake Campbell, bringing the Cavalier deficit to 5-2 after four innings.

In the bottom of the fourth the Choctaws stretched their lead to 6-2 on a RBI-groundout by Patterson, which scored Thomas who reached on a Crockett County error to start the frame.

The Cavaliers refused to lay down for the Choctaws and added two more runs in the top half of the fifth on three hits, making the score 6-4 with two innings remaining.

Patterson left after five complete innings of work and handed the ball over to Garrett Purvis who has came up big for the Choctaws all season, and he did his job Tuesday retiring the Cavaliers in the sixth, despite a one-out walk issued.

The score remained 6-4 until the top of the seventh when the Cavaliers made one last shot at a comeback victory, but fell one run short as Gammons came in and picked up the save even though allowing one run on two singles in the inning.

The Choctaws will meet with Dyersburg today for a rematch of Monday's 12-6 loss to the hot-hitting Trojans. The Choctaws will have to defeat the Dyersburg squad in back-to-back games in order to end the tournament as champions, a feat the squad accomplished last season.