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| Govs fall to Central | 2007-04-20 |
| The once hot-hitting Wallace Govs have cooled off in a big way this week. The Govs were routinely getting double digit hits and scoring double digit runs. But lately those hits and runs have been hard to come by. | |
 It hadn’t mattered much until Friday afternoon. That’s when the Govs returned to conference play against the Central Alabama Trojans. Wallace only managed six hits in the contest, and lost the game 4-3. It was the first conference loss for the Govs in nearly a month. The last conference loss came against Southern Union on March 24. “The intensity is just not there,� Wallace coach Mackey Sasser said. “I gave the guys a couple of days off, and it seems like they lost their focus. They don’t do all the things we were doing to win ball games. We rely on our hitting to win games. But we’re not patient. We’re lunging for balls and not sitting back.� Specifically about Friday’s game, Sasser said, “I think we only had two hard hit balls in the entire game. Then we made a couple of mistakes and (Central) took advantage of them to beat us.� Wallace pitcher Dave Mason took the loss. In his complete game, nine inning performance, Mason only gave up seven hits, walked two, hit two batters, and struck out two. Shawn Culligan pitched seven innings to get the win for Central. Dwight Hause picked up the save. The Trojans took the lead in the first inning when Jake Anderson and Luke Chapman lead off the game with back-to-back singles. Anderson then scored on a ground out by Justin Williams. The Govs tied the game in the bottom of the second in a rather uneventful way. Andrew Starr and Brett Chamberlain reached on singles, and Ryan Reece loaded the bases on a walk. The run scored on another walk, this one to Jonathan Eaves. But it was the third inning that was the difference in the game. That’s when the Trojans put a three-spot on the board. The first run scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Anderson. But Justin Williams, a Wiregrass native, came up with the biggest hit of the game. Williams hit a two RBI single that turned out to be the difference in the game. Williams played his high school ball at Carroll in Ozark, and played for American Legion baseball for Post 12. The Govs were able to get close in the bottom of the seventh inning when they scored two runs of their own. Ernesto Gonzales scored when Dennis Perez reached on an error, and Reece hit an RBI single to plate the second run. Despite getting runners on base in the final two innings, the Govs could get no closer. The Govs are now 18-4 in the Southern Division, 28-15overall. The Govs and the Trojans wrap up their conference series this afternoon at Wallace. The double header gets underway at noon. GAME NOTES • The Govs only managed six hits against Trojan pitching. Brett Chamberlain had two of the hits, Andrew Starr had two, while Ryan Reece and Ernesto Gonzales had one hit each. • Andrew Starr recently had his 20-game hitting streak snapped. But he picked up two infield hits on Friday. • Central-Alabama coach Don Ingram is very religious. He led the two teams in prayer at home plate following the game. Ingram believes so strongly in his convictions that he has resigned effective at the end of this year. Ingram resigned because the school would not allow him to put up two religious-oriented signs on the baseball field. • Going into this weekend, Alabama Southern was leading the conference with a record of 19-2. Wallace was in second place at 18-3. Wallace and Alabama Southern will play each other on the final weekend of the regular season. Nathaniel Frazier is Sports Information Director for Wallace Community College baseball and covers the Govs for the Dothan Eagle. He can be reached at NFrazier@DothanEagle.com . | |
| © Wallace Community College |
