LAUREL, Miss. – Chase Harvey homered and five players got two hits each as Paris scored a 10-0 victory over North Charleston, S.C., on Monday afternoon in the Dixie Majors World Series.
That made the defending champions one of only two unbeaten teams remaining in the 12-team, double-elimination championship tournament for 15-to-19 year-old players.
Then Paris scored five runs in the first inning Monday night against Laurel, Miss., the other undefeated team, for an early 5-1 lead.
“Yeah, we were sitting good,” Paris coach Heath Kennedy said. “Then we turned around and gave up five runs in the top of the second.”
Laurel ended up winning 8-7, getting Paris out in both the sixth and seventh innings with the tying and go-ahead runs on base.
“We had our chances. We left four runners on base,” Paris coach Heath Kennedy said.
“We’ll come back and get them tomorrow. We lost Game 4 last year, the same way, by one run, so I feel good about our chances.”
By virtue of the win Monday night, Laurel is 3-0, while Paris, Florida and Louisiana are all 3-1.
Paris plays Florida (Highlands County) at 5 p.m. Tuesday, followed by Laurel vs. Louisiana (Terrebonne Parish) at 7:30 p.m.
“For Louisiana to beat Laurel would be good,” Kennedy said.
If that happens, Louisiana and the Paris-Florida winner would flip a coin to see who would play Laurel in an elimination game at 5 p.m. Wednesday and who would get a bye to the 7:30 p.m. championship game.
Paris not only lost the game to Laurel, it lost catcher Josh Grant when he was hit by a foul tip.
“I think his hand’s broke,” Kennedy said.
Kyle Britt, the winning pitcher in Wednesday afternoon’s game, took over behind the plate for Grant.
Britt shut down Charleston on three hits and a walk in a game shortened to five innings because of Paris’ 10-run lead.
Getting two hits each for Paris in the victory were Chevis Springer, Lance Fields, Laytner Kennedy, Ty Huie and Corban Taylor. Harvey’s homer came with no one on base.
A few hours later, Harvey started for Paris and gave up a run in the top of the first inning, but struck out the side. Paris had allowed no runs in any of its earlier three games in the tournament.
Paris quickly overcame the one-run deficit. Springer walked and scored on Fields’ triple, and Laytner followed with an RBI single for a 2-1 lead. Huie and Taylor walked to load the bases, and Colby Rose followed with a 3-run double to make it 5-1.
A throwing error on a force play at second base prolonged the top of the first inning, and Laurel went on to score two unearned runs in a five-run inning that put the Mississippi team back in front, 6-5.
Laurel added single runs in the third and sixth on the way to pad its lead to 8-5, but Paris scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth after loading the bases with one out.
Harvey doubled, Laytner Kennedy singled, and Chris Cole walked. Paris got to within 8-6 on Rose’s single and to within 8-7 when a pitch got away from the Laurel catcher.
But with the tying run at third and the go-ahead run at second, the Laurel pitcher got the third out of the inning on Cort Raulston’s ground ball.
Chris House pitched the fourth through the sixth innings for Paris, gave up one run on two hits and a walk. Logan Warren came on to retire Laurel in the seventh, keeping Paris close enough for the win if it could rally in its final at-bat.
In the bottom of the inning, Paris got two men on base without a hit when Laurel’s pitcher hit Harvey, then walked Fields. Paris’ hopes ended when Laurel’s right fielder caught Kennedy’s fly ball for the final out of the game.
“We had our chances. We left four on base (in the last two innings),” Kennedy said.
“And we had an inning where we felt we had a couple of tough calls that went against us one inning,” Kennedy said.
“We had a guy that stole second. It looked like he was there. And then Corban hit a ball in the hold, and the shortstop laid out and made a great play. But Corban was about a step past first base when he (the first baseman) caught it.”
The bases were loaded that inning with two outs, “so we probably would have had an opportunity to score a couple of runs there,” Kennedy said.
He was not blaming the loss on that, however.
“You always have things like that. It was our own fault.”
Kennedy said “about 30 to 40” fans were in the stands cheering Paris on.
“They’ve been making noise. They’ve helped us a lot,” Kennedy said.
The Paris coach praised his players’ effort throughout the tournament but especially in the loss to Laurel.
“They played hard – everybody that got into the game, whether running or pinch-hitting or whatever. We pitched three different guys,” Kennedy said.
Jeff King, who had a complete-game, 1-0 victory for Paris over North Carolina on the tournament’s opening day, will get the nod to start against Florida.
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PARIS ROSTER – Kyle Britt, Chris Cole, Lance Fields, Josh Grant, Chase Harvey, Chris House, Ty Huie, Laytner Kennedy, Jeff King, Cort Raulston, Colby Rose, Chevis Springer, Corban Taylor. and Logan Warren.
TOURNAMENT RESULTS
Saturday, July 28:
Game 1 — Florida (Highlands County) 8, Arkansas (Camden) 6
Game 2 — South Carolina (North Charleston) 12, Alabama (Opp) 3
Game 3 — Virginia (South Boston) 4, Tennessee (Mount Pleasant) 3
Game 4 — Texas (Paris) 1, North Carolina (Duplin County) 0
Game 5 — Louisiana (Terrebonne Parish) 13, Georgia (Columbia County) 2
Game 6 — Laurel-Jones County, Miss. 3, Hattiesburg, Miss. 1
Sunday, July 29:
Game 7 — Alabama 9, Arkansas 5
Game 8 — North Carolina 6, Tennessee 5
Game 9 — Hattiesburg, Miss. 5, Georgia 3
Game 10 — South Carolina 5, Florida 2
Game 11 — Texas 7, Virginia 0
Game 12 –Laurel, Miss. 2, Louisiana 0
Monday, July 30:
Game 13 — Florida 10, Virginia 0
Game 14 — North Carolina 7, Hattiesburg, Miss. 1
Game 15 — Louisiana 7, Alabama 5
Game 16 — Texas 10, South Carolina 0
Game 17 — Florida 10, North Carolina 3
Game 18 — Louisiana 6, South Carolina 0
Game 19 – Laurel, Miss. 8, Texas 7
Tuesday, July 31:
Game 20 — (5 p.m.) Florida (3-1) vs. Texas (3-1)
Game 21 — (7:30 p.m.) Louisiana (3-1) vs. Laurel (3-0)
Wednesday, Aug. 1:
Game 22 — Laurel vs. Florida-Texas winner or Louisiana
Game 23 — (if necessary) between last two remaining one-loss teams
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Charles Richards Charles Richards moved to Paris in 2004 after retiring from a 40-year career in journalism – the last 26 years as a news writer and sports writer with The Associated Press in Dallas and Washington, D.C. In mid-2004, The Paris News coaxed him out of retirement, and he began covering the police, court and regional beat for The Paris News. Then in early 2005, he was switched to coverage of a sharply divided Paris City Council. He was appointed by the City Council in 2006 to the 12-member City Charter Review Commission, which extensively rewrote the outmoded document. His writing awards include two first-place awards in statewide competition for feature writing. The most recent was his 2005 story on a Paris doctor’s startling use of leeches in a successful attempt to re-attach a man’s severed ear. Over his career, Richards’ interview subjects include Alabama Gov. George Wallace, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, David Koresh, Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali and numerous other political and sports figures. He is an alumnus of Texas Tech, where he was editor of the school newspaper. He lives in Paris with his wife, Barbara, who is retired after 30 years as a teacher and high school counselor.
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