The Bowling Green Buccaneers hosted the Cougars of Central Hinds Academy last week at Jerry Rayborn Field in the opening round of the MAIS AAA Division II State Baseball Tournament.
After a scoreless first inning, the Bucs would get on the scoreboard in the second. Tucker Penton led off the inning with a double to center field. Easton Jones followed with a bunt that ended in an error that allowed Penton to score with Jones moving to second. Two groundouts and a strikeout ended the inning with the Bucs leading 1-0 after two innings.
Central Hinds pushed across a run in the top of the third and a scoreless inning for the Bucs left the game knotted at 1-1 after three innings.
Bowling Green regained the lead in the fourth. Penton reached on a one-out error, Jones walked and Beau Brown was hit by a pitch to load the bases. A ground ball to the Cougars second baseman scored Penton and Jones scored on a single to right by Colt Culpepper. The inning ended with Kade McDaniel stranded on third, but the Bucs led 3-1 after four innings.
Neither team would score again and the Bucs captured game one of the three-game series.
Trent Penton had two hits for the Bucs, Tucker Penton had one hit and scored two runs, Easton Jones added one hit and scored a run, while Colt Culpepper had one hit with an RBI.
Trendon Young was the winning pitcher going five innings, giving up six hits and one earned run while striking out three. Alijah Adams pitched the final two innings giving up only one hit and striking out one.
On Thursday the Bucs traveled to Raymond, Mississippi looking for one win to capture the series.
The Bucs and Cougars were tied at 4-4 after four innings in the first game of the day. The Cougars scored four runs in the fifth and finished the game with a seven run sixth inning to force a winner-take-all game three. Kade McDaniel had the lone hit for the Buccaneers.
In the final game of the series, Central Hinds plated two runs in the first inning with the Bucs scoring a single run in the top of the second. The Cougars added another run in the third to hold a 3-1 lead. Central Hinds added a pair of insurance runs in the sixth and finished with a 5-1 win to clinch the series.
Easton Jones, Colt Culpepper and Kade McDaniel each had one hit in the game with the Bucs season coming to an end in the first round of playoff
