Mooreville rolls past Tishomingo County after lineup change

CORINTH – Looking to spark its lineup, Mooreville made one small change.

Wyatt McDaniels, the Troopers’ regular leadoff hitter, and Cooper Goff, usually their second batter, swapped spots in the lineup, and that made all the difference.

No. 3-ranked Mooreville’s new-look top of the order feasted in an 11-2 win over Tishomingo County on Tuesday at the Corinth/NEMCC Spring Break Tournament.

“Made a little adjustment there with the lineup, just trying to get a couple of guys going,” Mooreville head coach Derek Thompson said. “Cooper and Wyatt’s been struggling a little bit here lately. We just flip-flopped them in the order, and I think we ended up getting five hits out of the two, so that was good to see.”

With three singles in his first three at-bats, Goff helped set the table for Mooreville (9-3) all game. Eli McDaniels doubled him home in the first inning as part of a two-run frame. With the Troopers up 3-0 in the second inning, Goff again singled before scoring on a Wyatt McDaniels two-RBI single.

“When you’ve got to face Wyatt and Eli and (Ethan) Cates with guys on (base), it makes it pretty tough on some guys,” Thompson said. “We’ve got a lot of confidence in those top four to get the job done when it’s there, and I thought they did that today.”

Wyatt McDaniels wasn’t done at the plate, either. After Tishomingo County (5-5) scored twice in the top of the third to get back in it, Mooreville plated five runs in the bottom of the fourth, punctuated by a Wyatt McDaniels three-run bomb.

“I was trying to be as loose as can be,” Wyatt McDaniels said. “I knew he was going to that curveball a lot, and I knew it was something I could stay on and drive. He came back to it after I’d pulled it foul, and I just stayed through it a little bit more and muscled it out there off the top of the wall.”

Extra Bases

Big Inning: Mooreville batted around for five runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Big Stat: Mooreville’s first four hitters had eight hits and eight RBIs combined.

Coach Speak: “We were able to do some things at the middle and bottom of the order, which is the difference in us being able to score 11 and being able to score four or five. When those guys five through nine contribute like they did today, we’re usually pretty decent.” – Thompson, on his lineup