West Lauderdale sizes up Magee
By By Marty Stamper / EMG sports assistant
May 3, 2004
After rolling through their Class 3A regional baseball tournament at Leakesville, the West Lauderdale Knights would appear to be well on their way to a shot at their 11th state championship.
Next up for the 26-6 Knights is a best-of-three series with Magee (18-10). Game 1 is set for tonight at Magee with a 6 p.m. start. Game 2 will be at Collinsville Tuesday with a 6 p.m. start. A third game, if needed, would be at Magee on Thursday with a 6 p.m. start.
To get this far, the Knights had to beat second-ranked Greene County twice on the Wildcats' home field. West did just that, taking 13-9 and 6-3 wins to
go unbeaten at Leakesville.
Next in line for the Knights is tonight's game at Magee. Boatner will start Gardner (4-1), a freshman, on the mound, freshman Cody Freeman behind the plate, freshman Austin Davis (.365) at first base, freshman Tyler Vick (5 HR) at second base, senior Bo Davis (.460, 8 HR) at shortstop, junior Caleb Dulaney (.323) at third base, senior Jay Warren (.330) in left field, Temple (.330), a junior in center field, and sophomore Drew Snider (.310, 4 HR) in right field.
we were striking out a lot, but early in the year we were putting it in play and we've done that here lately."
With Davis and Snider seeing limited time on the mound due to injuries this spring, the Knights have developed a fairly deep pitching staff.
Temple is 6-0, Paxton Pace is 4-1, sophomore Cory Hart is 5-2, and Davis and Snider are both 2-0.
Magee finished second in Region 6-3A behind Raleigh. Both the Trojans and Lions won their respective four-team tournaments a week ago.
Magee finished its tournament with a 13-1 rout of North Pike. Magee's head coach is Neshoba Central graduate Jonathan Jones.
The West-Magee winner will face the Purvis-Raleigh series winner next week.
