Another tough loss

By Tim Branstetter
Sports Writer

Fri, May 16 2008

— The South Laurel Cardinals could be facing gut check time as they once again came up on the short end of a hard fought one run ball game, loosing 4-3 to Middlesboro on Monday night.
“I’m not happy,” South Laurel coach Wynn Harris said. “I feel like physically we are too good of a ball club, but mentally I’m not sure. We have got to get tired of being beat by one run. You either start playing well or you pack your bags early and go barbecue the rest of the summer.”
Matthew Martin took the loss for the Cardinals, going six innings and only allowing three hits, but the first one was home run. After striking out the first two batters Martin gave up the homer as the Yellow Jackets took the early 1-0 advantage.
“He threw really well,” Harris said. “He is starting to really command the zone during his last couple of outings. I just hope he can continue to do that.”
After falling behind 3-0 in the third inning the Cardinals responded with three runs on three hits during the fifth inning to tie the score at 3-3.
Ricky Bowling led off with a single followed by a hard hit single by Jamaal Duncan. Martin scored Bowling and Duncan on a two run single to cut the lead to 3-2 with no outs. Luke Rakestraw reached on an error while tying the score at 3-3.
“We are still not getting the big hit,” Harris said. “Too many times we are leaving a runner on third base. I think we need to stop waiting until two outs to get a hit. We can’t really put together a big inning, we are kinda nickel and dimeing one run here and one run there.”
The Cardinals were hit with too many errors and the Yellow Jacket solo home run in the eighth inning proved to be too much to overcome.
“That’s all it takes,” Harris said. “A little thing here and a little thing there and all of a sudden you have a big thing on your hands. It’s up to them. They have to step up and want to play. I think we have fought all year long, but sometimes when you fight and fight and still come up on the losing end sometimes that fight quits and I don’t want that to happen.”
South Laurel hosted Southwestern last night, and will be on the road at Hazard tonight.

Middlesboro 4, South Laurel 3
Middlesboro 102 000 01-4 4
South Laurel 000 003 00-3 8

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