Bulldogs fall to Cougars; breeze past West Lincoln

Despite a slim, early lead, Franklin County’s varsity baseball team could not hold on down the stretch and came up on the short end of a 10-8 home decision to Lawrence County on Friday, March 3.

The Bulldogs had five hits in the contest and committed four errors while the Cougars collected seven hits and saw two errors.

Lawrence County scored five of its runs in the top of the first inning before FC answered in the latter half of the frame as seven Diamond Dawgs crossed home plate.

Donovan Moore drew a lead-off walk, Larry Pernell singled and Dalton Meadows walked to load the bags for FC.

From there, Quez Rancifer grounded into a fielder’s choice that pushed across both Moore and Pernell, but Meadows was tagged out en route to second base.

Dakota Chisholm stroked a grounder that was mishandled by Lawrence County and Rancifer made his way home from second on the play.

Noah McCormick then lobbed a single to right, and Chisholm was caught stealing third base for Franklin County’s second out.

McCormick put himself in scoring position by advancing to third on a pair of passed balls before Terrance Fields was issued a walk, Jamari Tolliver was hit by a pitch and Judson Arnold drew a walk.

McCormick’s ticket to home plate — thanks to the loaded bases — pulled FC to within one of the Cougars’ 5-4 lead.

Moore was hit by a pitch to score Fields and Pernell blasted a grounder that was mishandled by the Lawrence County defense — giving the green light to Tolliver and Arnold to plate two more runs for a 7-5 Bulldogs’ advantage.

The Cougars scored a run in the top of the second to pull within a run of the lead, and Franklin County scored in the bottom of the fourth — in large part due to a Moore triple to left — to move out to an 8-6 bulge.

Lawrence County retook the lead thanks to four runs scored in the top of the fifth and the Bulldogs had nothing to show for their efforts in the bottom of the frame.

Moore was 1-of-1 at the plate with two runs scored, an RBI and a walk while Fields was 1-of-2 with a run and a walk.

Pernell, Chisholm and McCormick all went 1-of-3 in their respective at-bats with Pernell and McCormick both scoring once.

Despite not having a hit in two at-bats, Tolliver and Arnold each scored a run.

Tolliver struck out twice while Arnold had an RBI, a walk and a strike out.

Rancifer, who was 0-of-3, scored a run, had two RBI and a strike out.

A trio of hurlers climbed the hill for the Bulldogs with Meadows working a third of an inning in tossing 39 pitches.

He surrendered five runs (four earned) on two hits while striking out one and walking two Lawrence County batters.

Tolliver surrendered five runs (four earned) on five hits and struck out five while walking as many during his tenure.

McCormick threw six pitches in two-thirds of an inning and struck out one batter.

• • •

FC 18, WEST LINCOLN 0

The Diamond Dawgs scored in every inning of their 18-0 thrashing of West Lincoln on the road Tuesday, Feb. 28.

FC scored three runs each in the first, second and third innings and nine more in the fourth to seal the victory.

The Bulldogs collected a total of 14 hits in the contest, which included a 4-of-4 performance at the plate by Meadows, who scored three runs, clubbed a home run and had four RBI.

Tolliver was 2-of-2 with a double, three runs scored and two RBI for the Bulldogs.

Arnold went 1-of-1 with an RBI.

Rancifer went 2-of-3 with a pair of runs, an RBI along with a double and home run to his credit against the Bears.

Moore, Clanton and Fields were all 1-of-2 on the night in terms of hitting.

Moore, who accounted for a double, scored three times, had three RBI and recorded a walk.

Clanton had two RBI and a walk while Fields scored twice and walked once.

Pernell and McCormick were both 1-of-3 with the former scoring twice with two RBI and the latter also coming home two times while clubbing a double.

Dawson Halford scored a run for the Bulldogs.

Franklin County committed no errors in the game while West Lincoln was tagged with five miscues from start to finish.

Tolliver went the four-innings distance for the Bulldogs on the mound and threw a total of 64 pitches.

For the night, he gave up no runs and one hit while striking out six and walking two.

Tolliver’s pitch-to-strike ratio was 64-36 (56.2 percent).

West Lincoln burned five pitchers in the mercy-rule shortened affair — with the corps of Korben Altman, Gabe Gennaro, Brody Dillon and Taylor Myers combining for only one strikeout against FC and issuing three walks.

The Bulldogs were slated to return to action against Hazlehurst in a double-header at 4 p.m., Thursday, March 9.

The team will then enjoy a spring break hiatus before playing at Port Gibson in another double-header on Tuesday, March 21.