Meridian's Ken Mitts hurls fourth no-hitter of year
By By Robby Atkinson / staff writer
April 7, 2004
The Meridian High Wildcats entered Tuesday night needing a division win, and the Wildcats got that and a little more.
Ken Mitts pitched his fourth no-hitter of the season, as the Wildcats defeated Murrah 14-2.
Northwest Rankin defeated Brandon 6-0 in another important division game, which gave Meridian High its fourth straight appearance in the Class 5A state playoffs.
Mitts, a senior right-hander, pitched five innings and collected 10 strikeouts while allowing six walks.
The Wildcats provided Mitts with plenty of run support, especially in the first and second innings. Chris Harris led the first inning off with a line-drive single to left, and Tyler McMullen put MHS on top 2-0 with a towering home run to left field, his second round-tripper of the season.
The second inning saw the Wildcats score four runs on just one hit to take a 6-0 lead over the Mustangs. Lindsey Spinks led the inning off with a single and later scored on a wild pitch to make the score 3-0. Meridian scored its next three runs on wild pitches, and Harris added an RBI on a sacrifice fly to extend the lead 6-0.
Murrah finally erased the shutout by scoring one run in the third inning to make the score 6-1. The run scored for the Mustangs on a sacrifice fly by Nick Stewart to put Murrah on the board. Meridian answered with three more runs in the bottom of the third to make the score 9-1.
One run scored on an RBI double by Harris, and two more runs crossed the plate on a pair of wild pitches. Meridian High ended the great night of offense with five more runs in the fourth inning to cruise to the win.
Kemone McDade led off the fourth with a triple and crossed the plate on a wild pitch to make the score 10-1. Spinks followed with a double to right field and scored on an RBI single from Fernando Atterberry to build the lead to 11-1.
Meridian had a couple of new faces off the bench contribute three runs late in the game. Steven Boyd and Corey Griffen both had run-scoring singles, while Marcus Boyd added an RBI triple.
