Golden Tigers fall to Trojans in area opener

By Staff
Mike Self FCT Sports Editor
Seth Knight, Corey Barron and Drew Clark each drove in three runs in support of a strong outing by Joel Sessions on Tuesday as Muscle Shoals remained undefeated by opening area play with a 9-0 victory over visiting Russellville at Gattman Park.
The Golden Tigers (0-5, 0-1 Class 5A, Area 16) again played without head coach Phil Phillips, who missed his fourth straight game due to health reasons.
Phillips recently underwent a biopsy on his colon in Birmingham. He said Tuesday afternoon that he had lost 20 pounds because of the medication he has been taking.
"The medicine has been making me sick, and I haven't really felt like doing much of anything lately," Phillips said. "I went back to school today because I was tired of sitting around the house doing nothing."
Phillips, whose wife Jill is due with the couple's first child in April, said he expected to receive test results today. Those results will go a long way toward determining if and when he can return to coaching.
Phillips acknowledged the possibility that he may miss the remainder of the season.
"We're hoping and praying that everything works out for the best for Coach Phillips," said assistant Steve Kerby, who is coaching the Golden Tigers in Phillips' absence. "He's a great guy with a great baseball mind, but that's not what this is about. We love baseball and we want him back out here on the field, but our main concern is for him, his health and his family. We want him to be ready to take care of that baby he's got coming soon."
The Golden Tigers never got their bats going against Sessions, who retired the first 12 men he faced and finished with seven strikeouts in a complete game two-hitter.
"Sessions is a really good pitcher, and he pitched well today," Kerby said. "We didn't strike out a whole lot, but he jammed us a lot and we hit a bunch of weak grounders and pop-ups. We probably had about 40 hits our last four games coming in, but we just couldn't put them together today. And Sessions had a lot to do with that."
Russellville starter Craig Bullion battled through uncharacteristic control problems, walking five batters and hitting four more.
The senior righthander ended up allowing nine runs on nine hits in five innings, striking out three.
"Craig battled hard today, but we never could seem to find the edge of the strike zone," Kerby said. "If we're not able to get on the edge and stay there, we're probably in trouble, because we don't overpower anybody."
Bullion allowed a leadoff single to Knight in the first, but he got Derrick Green to ground into a 1-6-3 double play for the first of Russellville's three twin killings in the game.
The Trojans (6-0, 1-0) mounted a two-out rally as Barron walked, stole second and scored on a single by Clark. Brent Bradford and Sessions followed with hits, but Bullion struck out Rusty Todd to escape the jam.
Bullion's control abandoned him in the second as he hit the Trojans' number eight and nine batters and then walked Knight to load the bases.
It looked like Bullion might escape another jam when Green's grounder to third baseman Seth Fergerson resulted in a rare 5-2-3 double play, but Barron followed with a two-run single to make it 3-0.
Muscle Shoals took control with four runs in the bottom of the third, as Knight and Clark each delivered two-run singles to push the lead to 7-0.
"Muscle Shoals has a really good baseball team," Kerby said. "Coach [Paul] Ellis and his staff do a great job with those guys. We've got a really young team right now. We had four freshmen and two sophomores in the starting lineup tonight, and that youth really shows when you play against a seasoned, experienced team like Muscle Shoals."
Bullion hit two more batters in the fourth, including Knight with the bases loaded to force home another run.
Barron led off the bottom of the fifth with a home run to centerfield to finish off the scoring.
Russellville finally threatened in the top of the fifth, loading the bases with no outs, but Sessions struck out two batters and got Ty Cox on a groundout to escape the jam.
Caleb Mitchell walked and Torey Baird singled in the top of the sixth as the Golden Tigers put runners on second and third with one out, but Sessions struck out Fergerson and got Corey Flanagan on a groundout to preserve the shutout.
Baird and Flanagan each had one hit for Russellville.
Barron was 2-for-3 with three runs, three RBIs and three stolen bases. Knight was 2-for-3 with two runs scored, and Clark went 2-for-2.
Russellville was scheduled to play at Colbert Heights on Thursday, and the Golden Tigers will host Emma Sansom and Jemison on Saturday.
"We just have to put the bat on the ball and string some hits together," Kerby said. "And we have to limit the other team's big innings. We can't make mistakes early and put ourselves in a position where we're always trying to come back."