Navarro sweeps Dragons

By Shawn Edwards

April 19, 2008 09:19 pm

— The Navarro Bulldogs came away with another doubleheader sweep of Region XIV rival Paris Saturday at Graham Field.
Navarro rallied late to overcome the Dragons solid pitching, 3-0 in the first game of the afternoon.
“It was a pitchers day today,” said coach Whoa Dill of the first game of the doubleheader. “But our guys are good enough to find a way to win and that’s what they did.”
After five innings of scoreless baseball, the Bulldogs’ bats got going in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Jeff Jones started off the inning being hit by a pitch to reach first base.
A Jordan Kopycinski bunt followed and was just out of reach of Dragon pitcher Will Calhoun, who attempted a diving catch toward the first base line. Kopycinski managed to trek over the out-reached Calhoun and reach first base safely as Jones advanced to second base.
With a Jaron Shepherd sacrifice to put both runners in scoring position, third baseman Zach Grichor did the rest, driving in the runners with a single.
Grichor went 5-for-7 for the day, scoring four runs.
Justin Howard followed up Grichor with an RBI-double to round out the Navarro scoring.
Jared Rogers improved his season record to 7-1 in the win, pitching a seven-inning, one-hit shutout.
The Navarro offense went to work earlier in the second game, winning 9-3.
Grichor started the bottom of the third inning with a lead-off-single.
The bases loaded with a Justin Howard walk and a Kyle Livingstone bunt.
Jeff Jones drove in the first run of the game with a bunt, scoring Grichor from third base.
The Bulldogs (41-7, 22-2) went to the squeeze again with a sacrifice by Corey Kelly to bring Howard across home plate.
Mark Mayfield got involved with a two-RBI single, giving Navarro a 4-0 advantage.
Navarro continued to light the scoreboard in the fourth inning.
With two men in scoring position and one out, Livingstone was able to drive in Brock Holt on a sacrifice to right field.
The fans stood silent as Holt laid clutching his right shoulder next to home plate.
According to Dill, Holt tripped as he crossed home plate and landed awkwardly on his shoulder.
“We think he may have popped his shoulder out of place,” Dill said. “But we won’t know until Monday after his sees a doctor.
“Hopefully the doctor will say he is okay, but we have time for him to heal up and we still have guys that can manufacture for us.”
Navarro went on to score an additional run in the inning, with an RBI-single by Ross Hubbard.
Paris scored its first run of the day in the sixth inning with a Brice Peterman triple to score Joe Robinson from first base.
The Bulldogs extended their lead to 7-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning on a Hubbard RBI-sacrifice to left field.
The Dragons put the pressure on Navarro pitcher Travis Dirk in the seventh inning.
Abe Williams and Justin Miller each had RBI-singles to cut the Bulldog lead to four runs.
Hubbard helped provide Navarro with a couple of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth, driving in Grichor and Caleb Marx with a single to right field.
Dawson’s Michael Medrano finished off the Dragons in the ninth, striking out two batters in the final inning.
Navarro will be on the road until its season finale against Hill College on May 1.


Navarro 3, Paris 0
Paris 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 1 0
Navarro 0 0 0 0 0 3 x — 3 5 1

WP: Jared Rogers (7-1)
LP: Will Calhoun
Leading hitters: N: Zach Grichor 2-3 R, 2RBI; Justin Howard 1-3 2B, RBI; Jordan Kopycinski 1-2; Kyle Livingstone 1-3. P: Beau Bentley 1-1.

Navarro 9, Paris 3
Paris 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 – 3 8 1
Navarro 0 0 4 2 0 1 0 2 x — 9 13 1

WP: Garrett Larsen (8-0)
LP: Cole White
Leading hitters: N: Brock Holt 2-3 SB, R; Caleb Marx 1-2 2B, R; Zach Grichor 3-4 SB, 3R; Kyle Livingstone 2-4 2B, R, RBI; Ross Hubbard 2-3 4RBI; Jeff Jones 2-5 2B, R, RBI; Mark Mayfield 1-3 BB, SB, 2RBI. P: Justin Miller 1-3 2BB, R; Brice Peterman 1-3 3B, RBI; Abe Williams 1-4 BB, RBI; Will Calhoun 1-3 BB, RBI.
Records: Navarro 41-7, 22-2 Region XIV; Paris 15-21, 9-15.

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