By Thomas Sellers Jr.
ARLINGTON — After beating the Bolton Wildcats 14-2 at home the previous night, April 13 got off to an ideal start for the Millington Trojans when Brock Musgrove hit an inside-the-park home run.
Despite eventually winning rematch on the Bolton Baseball Field 20-3, the Trojans had a subpar performance. Millington Head Coach Colter Millican said the biggest plus he can take away from the District 15-2A victory was getting a lot of players a chance to hit the field.
“The younger guys hitting the baseball because the older guys were not,” Millican acknowledged.
With his veterans sluggish and allowing the Wildcats to hang around for nearly six innings, Millican employed some new energy into his lineup and from the mound to pull away from Bolton with 11 runs in the seventh inning.
A couple of Trojan highlights in the 9 runs before the final inning included a two-run double from Josh Coates.
Then the game plan Millican and staff had been preaching since the first pitch took fruition. The Millington coaches asked their players to be patient at the plate, hit line drives and attack anything in the zone.
With one out, the Trojans placed 11 runs on the Bolton scoreboard starting with Skylar Contrell reaching base and stealing a base. His teammates Andrew Van and Cody Smith reached the base path as well.
A pass ball allowed Contrell to cross home plate. After a Musgrove walk reloaded the bases, Coates struck again with a single to make the score 12-3.
Next to the plate was Tyler Jordan and he drove in two runners with a base hit. The Trojans went ahead 15-3 when with another single. Nathan White drove in another run later in the frame.
Other Trojans to drive in RBIs before the umpire called the game were Ryan Winans, Cody Smith and Garrett Ritter.
Millican was relieved to see his younger players give the much-needed spark for the Millington league victory. But he will remain his crew some other crucial coaching points.
“Getting ahead of hitters whenever we’re pitching and putting the baseball in play,” he noted. “We need to put pressure on defenses because we’ve been striking out a lot.”
And the young Skipper said he will make a trip by the mirror as well.
“It’s something me as a coach has to learn because it starts with me,” he concluded. “I have to make sure they are ready for and obviously i haven’t done a great job of that.”
