PreMajors advance to semifinal round
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Greenville won a chance to redeem itself in the semifinals of the Dixie PreMajors sub-district tournament in Opp on Saturday.
The Greenville all-stars, behind a stellar pitching performance by Hunter Paul, led Greenville to an easy 9-1 victory over Enterprise to set up a rematch with Opp late Tuesday night.
Results from the game were not available by presstime on Tuesday.
Paul pitched the complete game and gave up just two hits and struck out 10 Enterprise batters Saturday.
"Hunter Paul pitched a whale of a game for us," said Greenville all-stars coach Steve Croley. "He came through when we needed him."
While Paul quieted Enterprise's bats, Greenville's bats came alive.
Greenville scattered 12 hits with four of the 12 going for extra bases.
That was the complete opposite of what happened to Greenville in opening-round game with Opp. Greenville fell 8-1.
"We had a lot of errors and couldn't hit the ball well," Croley said. "So we needed that to turn around for us in the elimination game."
Greenville scored two runs in the first inning against Enterprise on a RBI double by Ty Newton to score Casey Weston. Weston later scored on a RBI single by Andrew Phelps.
Greenville then added two more runs in the second inning on a two RBI double by Newton to score Brandon Croley and Phelps.
Greenville added a run in the sixth when Weston scored from second base on a Allen Little single.
Little later doubled in the seventh to drive in Greenville's last two runs. Paul reached on a single, and Mack Lee was hit by a pitch. Little then cracked a double to score the two runs.
Greenville could not muster the hits or the runs like it did against Enterprise during its opening-round game with host Opp.
Greenville managed to score just one run on three hits and committed four errors in the 8-1 setback.
Greenville scored its lone run in the third inning on a sacrifice squeeze bunt attempt by Zack Smith to score Weston with one out.
Brandon Croley, Newton and Smith accounted for all of Greenville's hits.
Smith drew the start on the mound for Greenville and was later chased after three innings of work.