CENTRAL PULLS OFF TW COMEBACK WINS IN CHAMBER CLASSIC

SOUTH HAVEN, Miss. -- The Cape Central Tigers pulled off the upset of the Chamber Classic Tournament, handing a 9-5 loss to Mississippi's top high school baseball team, New Hope, Thursday.

In Friday's play, the Tigers followed up with a 13-10 victory over South Panola (Miss.) before losing to Collierville (Tenn.) 10-1.

Because of the loss, Cape Central (7-2) will not be able to advance out of pool play.

"We're playing real well," said Cape Central coach Steve Williams. "Obviously beating New Hope has been the highlight of the trip for us because they were the No. 1 team in Mississippi. We came back on them and we came back on a good South Panola team this morning. Both those teams are as good as we'll see all season."

Against New Hope, Craig Ringwald went the distance, allowing seven hits.

After New Hope scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Central answered with four run in the fifth, three in the sixth and two in the seventh for a 9-3 lead.

Tatum Kitchen belted a three-run homer in the fifth which gave the Tigers the lead.

Against South Panola, the Tigers trailed 6-1 before scoring four runs in the bottom of the fourth. South Panola still held a 7-5 lead in the sixth, but Central broke loose for eight runs. Seven of the Tigers' 11 hits in the game came in the outburst.

Andy Sweet, Ross Bennett, Greg Craft and Chris Bradshaw each had two hits. Ringwald finished with three RBIs and Paul Dobbins added a three-run triple.

Jeff Michel, the third Tiger pitcher, recorded the win, pitching two innings of one-hit ball.

Michel suffered the loss against Collierville, getting chased in an eight-run third.

The Tigers managed just four hits, including back-to-back doubles by Bennett and Kitchen to account for Central's lone run in the fifth inning.

"They had a big third inning and we could never recover from it," said Williams. "We had a couple good chances before that where we didn't score and it ended up costing us."

The Tigers return to tournament action this morning against Hernando (Miss.).

Jackson 22, New Madrid 12

NEW MADRID -- A combination of 18 Jackson hits and 11 Eagle errors proved lethal to New Madrid in a six-inning contest.

Jackson scored in every inning as it made a winner of starting pitcher Jason Goben, who surrendered 12 hits in 5 1/3 innings. Goben struck out five and walked four before giving way to Paul Johns.

Tory Meyr accounted for four of Jackson's hits, while Travis Stevens and Ben Turner had three apiece. Todd Wessel added two hits and finished with four RBIs and Andy Callis had two hits and three RBIs.

Jackson (5-3) led from the start, scoring six runs in the first. New Madrid countered with three in the bottom of the inning, but the Indians pushed across four more runs in the second for a 10-3 lead. New Madrid never got closer than five runs thereafter.

Jackson will visit Notre Dame on Tuesday.