PJC baseball nearing end of fall scrimmages

Published or Revised October 16, 2015

The Paris Junior College baseball team traveled to Lufkin the weekend of Oct. 2 to compete in the NJCAA Region 14 East Fall Conference Tournament. The showcase is always well recruited by many college and professional scouts. On Friday the Dragons took on Navarro College and Angelina College to open the showcase. Game one saw Dallas Jesuit High School graduate Chris Muller hit the mound to tackle the Bulldogs. In three innings of work Chris struck out seven and only allowed three hits and one run. Muller was followed by Rhett Deaton from Winnsboro High School and Kal Kilgo of McKinney High School, to hold Navarro in check allowing a combined one run on only four hits and five strikeouts. Offensively, Corey Murray of Mansfield Legacy High School sparked the Dragons with a two for three effort with a double and one RBI. The game ended in a 3-2 victory to propel them into the nightcap against Angelina College. The Roadrunners sent a big 6’ 5” hard throwing right hander to the mound to hold PJC in check, but the Dragons scrambled for four runs on the night led by a two for four with an RBI performance from Chad Hardy from Prosper High School and a two for three with a run scored performance from Lewisville High School graduate Matthew Nemecek. The four runs were enough as freshman David Rodriguez from Hebron High School, sophomore Stanton Lohrengel of Bryan Adams High School and freshman Rixey Boyd of Argyle High School held Angelina to one run on four hits with four strikeouts. The Dragons earned a day off on Saturday, then returned to Angelina College on Sunday to play Bossier Parish Community College and Panola College in back-to-back games. Game one saw a back and forth game that ended in a 5-4 loss. Nolan Ritchie from Frisco Centennial High School collected two hits and an RBI; Nemecek collected two more hits and two more runs. The Cavaliers were able to take advantage of several Dragon base-on-balls and scratched out the five runs on nine hits while striking out nine times. Parker White of Spring Hill High School displayed the most impressive outing with three innings, two hits, two runs and four strikeouts. In the second game against Panola, the Dragons were never able to keep up as the Ponies raced out to eight runs on 10 hits and only one strikeout. The offense scratched out nine hits of their own including some big extra base hits from Austin Toups of Plano High School and Ruben Rodriguez of Eastlake High School. Fall scrimmages will end with a four-game showcase in Tishomingo, Okla., with the Murray State Fall Classic on October 16 & 17.