After 2-day wait, Sains make fast work of Hawks

MT. JULIET — After waiting two days, it took Mt. Juliet Christian 20 minutes to dispose of visiting Merrol Hyde 14-3 to gain a split of a season-ending double header Wednesday.
Merrol Hyde won the opener 14-6 Monday. Mt. Juliet Christian led the nightcap 8-3 after four innings when the game was suspended due to darkness. Unable to get umpires Tuesday, the teams resumed play Wednesday and the Saints, batting in the top of the fifth inning as the visiting team, scored six times to run-rule the Hawks.
Mt. Juliet Christian finished the regulars season 7-12 and 2-10 in District 8-A, giving the Saints the No. 6 seed for the upcoming tournament and a 4 p.m. first-round game against No. 3 Gordonsville at South Carthage's Crump Paris Park on Friday. Merrol Hyde fell to No. 7 and will travel to No. 2 Westmoreland with the winners to meet Monday at Friendship Christian in the double-elimination round.
Jonathan Roberts got Mt. Juliet Christian going with a first-inning home run in the second game Monday and Tyler Holloway touched them all for an inside-the-park, grand slam in the third. Sophomore Trey McNeil, who missed last season with a broken collarbone, got his first career hit Wednesday via a two-run double in the fifth.
Daniel Shedd and T.J. Roberts each drove in a run as they, Holloway and Jonathan Roberts each racked up two hits while Codye Sullivan, Phillip Harnage and winning pitcher Chris Frazier each finished with one.
Frazier fired Monday's four innings, allowing three hits, before Sullivan surrendered two hits in the fifth Wednesday.
In the first game, Mt. Juliet Christian committed nine errors and the Hawks put together 10 hits against Steven Bryan and the Roberts [who are not related].
The Saints also secured 10 hits, including three each by Harnage and Bryan, who hit an RBI single in the third and a two-run double in the fifth. Jonathan Roberts racked up two hits and Shedd and Sullivan one each.
In the other bracket, No. 5-seed Watertown will go to No. 4 Trousdale County at 3 p.m. Friday with the winner facing No. 1 Friendship on Monday.

Macon County turns tables on Commanders
Baseball may be the hardest game to figure out.
Five days after Friendship Christian won comfortably at Macon County, the Tigers came to FCS on Wednesday and run ruled the Commanders 14-0.
Cody Searcey, who won the game last Friday, took the loss Wednesday.
"Same pitchers that pitched last Friday and pitched today; that's baseball," Friendship coach John McNeal said after his Commanders concluded a 21-12 regular season. "I don't think we played well all week.
"We didn't play well and they played good. They did hit the ball."
Friendship will host the double-elimination round of the District 8-A tournament beginning Monday. The top-seeded Commanders will play at 4 p.m. against the winner of Friday's 3 p.m. game between Watertown and Trousdale County in Hartsville.