By Fred Kroner
Bradley Jones had an auspicious start on the mound Saturday (Aug. 26) as the Mahomet-Seymour Junior High baseball team returned to action after a one-week layoff.
Jones yielded a single to the first batter and then issued two consecutive walks to load the bases with no outs.
However, thanks to a yeoman effort he got out of the inning unscathed. Jones struck out the next three batters in the opening inning.
That foreshadowed what was to come. By the time Jones left the mound after five innings, he had retired 15 consecutive batters.
His teammates gave him enough offensive support that M-S posted a 3-0 victory.
Jones and Colin Whooley combined to pitch the team’s first shutout of the season.
Camden Beedy drove in two runs for the Bulldogs. His third-inning single drove in Owen Henry with the only run M-S would need. Beedy added an insurance run in the seventh with a run-scoring double that knocked in Lucas Rhodes.
The other Bulldog run came in the fourth inning when Landon Benner stole home.
Jones finished his pitching stint with 11 strikeouts. Whooley fanned one batter and yielded two hits.
Beedy, Marco Casillas and Preston Clark all poked two hits for the Bulldogs.
M-S (6-0) returns to action on Wednesday (Aug. 30) at Champaign St. Matthew.
In the junior varsity game, M-S faced the Bloomington varsity and fell behind 7-2 before rallying for a 7-7 tie in a game it eventually lost, 13-7.
