Posted on Tue, May. 06, 2008
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Irish's bats fall silent against Saints
Anthony notches shutout to advance
By LARRY HOLDER
lholder@sunherald.com
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HATTIESBURG --
St. Andrews pitcher Chandler Anthony may have pulled out the best pitching performance of his life Monday afternoon, and it ended St. Patrick's season.Anthony tossed a one-hitter in the rubber game of the Class 2A South State semifinals as the Saints eliminated the Irish with an 11-0 victory at William Carey's Milton Wheeler Field to win the best-of-three series 2-1.
The Irish's Joey Harris cracked a single to lead off the seventh inning to end the span. But a double play occurred two pitches later to cancel it out. Other than that hit, the Irish mustered four base runners (three walks, one hit by pitch) through the first six innings.
"We've kind of played the playoffs like that," St. Andrews coach Mike Fanning said. "We've got three really good pitchers and to say he's our third pitcher wouldn't be a true statement. We just pitched them in that order."
Fanning said Anthony used a solid combination of fastballs and off-speed pitches to keep the St. Patrick bats nearly silent.
St. Patrick coach Joe Sam Owen searched for answers following the game.
"We just didn't hit," Owen said. "The 11-0 is immaterial. We've never had a game quite like this and I've never not had a hit going into the seventh inning."
The Saints opened up the scoring in the third inning to take a 3-0 advantage.
After an E.B. Martin double, William Mayfield dropped what would have been a sacrifice bunt. Instead it turned into a three-base error as a throwing error from Irish pitcher Beau Underwood, who earned the loss, allowed Martin to score and Mayfield to hustle to third.
Jerrod Myers followed by ripping a triple to score Mayfield. Myers then stole second base, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Robinson Crawford sacrifice fly.
Fanning said the three-inning spree created some breathing room for Anthony.
"Once we really got three runs, that's when he really went after those guys," Fanning said. "He pitched out of jams, but he really wasn't in many jams. He was in control all day and he really didn't throw that many innings this year."
St. Andrews' offense exploded late as the Saints put up seven runs in the top of the seventh inning to run away. Martin capped off the Saints' rally with a bases-loaded triple to deep left-center field to give St. Andrews its double-digit lead.
But it came back to Anthony ability to stymie St. Patrick's players in the batter's box.
"(Anthony) did a good job, but we've faced competitive pitching before," Owen said. "We just didn't hit the ball and that happens. That's baseball."
