It was a tough start to the regular season for the Louisville Wildcats on the diamond as they had to take on tough competition in Caledonia and Neshoba Central.
The Confederates and former Starkville coach Travis Garner was first on the docket and they raced out to a 9-0 lead in the first inning and on to an 18-1 triumph in Caledonia. Two more runs were added by Caledonia in the second inning and then another big frame in the third with seven runs as the Wildcats were just able to get one run in the fourth as the game was a run-rule.
Khaliah Coburn and John Mark Wallace did all the pitching in 3.0 innings and combined to give up six hits and eight walks. The defense was the biggest issue for the pitchers as they only gave up seven earned runs of the 18 scored by the Confederates leaving 11 unearned runs thanks to errors.
Dre Shumaker led the Wildcats in hits with two base knocks in the team’s only RBI.
It was some of the same in the second game of the week against Neshoba Central as the Rockets used 12 runs in the second inning for a 15-0 win in three innings.
Coming up this week, Louisville is expected to play at home against Heritage on Tuesday and travel to Choctaw County in Ackerman for a 7 p.m. contest against the Chargers on Friday. Those games are weather permitting as showers were coming through the area in the early part of the week.
