If the North Sunflower Academy Rebel baseball team could play five-inning games, they may be undefeated. However, those sixth and seventh innings have come with errors and worn out pitchers leading to losses and a 1-5 overall record. Rebel Head Coach Anthony Rivera has also been dodging bad weather and shifting the game schedule to get games in.
Last week, the Rebels were leading Lee (Ark.) Academy 8-4 going into the top of the sixth but ended up losing, 10-8. The spring break game left Coach Rivera with lots of young talent of the nine players that were available.
“I had three varsity guys and the other six were my JV guys in 7th, 8th and 9th grades,” he said. “That was our first district loss. Senior Dalton Hollis had a good game on the mound for us and led with six stolen bases.”
The Rebels were scheduled to take on Deer Creek this past Monday but the Warriors had to reschedule one of their own district opponents so Coach Rivera moved the Tuesday Tunica matchup to Monday. The team again suffered a late inning let down as they were only down 6-3 in the fifth but ended up losing, 13-3.
Photos by Vikki Paey
“We just have to play better defense and finish out innings,” Coach Rivera said. “If you go back and look at our books, we’re in every game till around the sixth inning and we’ll give up errors. We’re committing multiple errors back to back. We could easily be an undefeated team but we’re sitting at 1-5 and these are easy things that need to be corrected. There’s no excuse for not putting your glove on the ground.”
The Rebels are 0-2 in district play and face Tunica at home today (Thursday.) The scheduled Monday March 28 game with Sharkey-Issaquena Academy may be rescheduled so NSA can pick up a make-up game with Lee. They will take on Regents School of Oxford, their only win thus far, at home on Thursday March 31.
“I’m hoping that we pull it together and make it a stretch. We don’t have that many games left but if we can accumulate some runs and play solid defense and play a full seven innings, nobody can beat us,” he said. “If we gel and when we gel, we can compete with anybody. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. The question is are we going to come out of the tunnel or just stay in there and wonder what’s at the end of it.”
