By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Glad to be back home and see familiar faces, the Munford Cougars welcomed the rivaled Millington Trojans to the Munford Baseball Field last Thursday.
The emerging Trojans came ready to push their familiar foe behind the nasty curveball of pitcher Alex Jennings. Millington limited the Cougars throughout but Munford put together a rally in the third inning to prevail 5-1.
“We just got back from Murfreesboro,” Munford Head Coach Scotty Yount said. “That’s like going to play up in the State Tournament up there. Played a really good team out of Coleman, Ala. Played Brentwood who we played in the State Tournament in ‘17. Played Rossview who won it in ‘18. Then played Blackman who is a State contender year in and year out. We go up there to play good competition.”
The Cougars went 1-3 in Middle Tennessee. Back home and still preparing to jump full force into the District 13-3A schedule, Munford took on the Trojans. Cougar hurler Garrett McKinney matched Millington’s Jenning pitch for pitch in the first two innings.
After recording one out in the bottom of the third, Munford’s Chris Swords reached second base. Then a balk placed him on third for Hunter Reed to drive in the first run of the game with a ground ball.
Shane Cox made the score 2-0 with a sort of home run. Cox drove a pitch deep down the left field line. Once the ball was hit the ground and raced away from the Millington fielder, Cox wad full speed around the bases reaching home plate with a dive.
Hunter Carson made the score 4-0 for the Cougars later in the inning with a two-run single.
Both teams scored a run in the sixth inning with Andrew Van driving in the Trojans’ only RBI of the game.
“We’re dealing with some injuries,” Yount noted. “We’ve had some kids step up in some spots. We can play with anybody. We know that. Fee more things like execute some basic fundamentals better. We execute some basic fundamentals against some of those better teams, we win some of those games.
“We go up there and you go 2-2, I am happy,” he continued. “We go 1-3. We were really in every game. A little execution here and there, it’s a different story.”
As Munford had to do against Millington, adjustments were needed to earn the victory. Young said his Cougars will continue to make steady progress as May approaches.
“The things about this team and the injuries we have, our No. 1 is gone for the year,” he concluded. “Shane’s shoulder is bothering him. He hasn’t been playing in the field. The best thing I’ve learned about this team is we have depth. I’ve been using almost everybody in every game. That’s something I have never been able to do here really is use my bench. Everybody is contributing. And that’s our strong spot.”
