There are silver linings in all aspects of baseball. They come when things are good; they come when things are a bit rocky.

Southside reliever Stratton Whittington worked four effective innings of relief of Kinner Brasher in Friday's 8-1 loss to the Cabot Panthers.


Brasher, who deserved a better fate than his line of 11 hits and five earned runs in just three innings showed, dropped to 1-1. The Mavericks (3-6, 0-2) head to Tennessee next to compete in the Union City Tournament.

"You try to take away the positives from things," Southside coach Dale Harpenau said. "I thought Stratton came in and threw the ball really well for us. He did a good of keeping it it where it was when he came in. Anytime you bring a kid in with the bases loaded and nobody out, and he was basically able to work out of that for the most part, then that's a positive.

"We're going to need Stratton down the road as we go."

Brasher wasn't dominating. But he wasn't as bad as his final line, either.

The senior left-hander gave up three scratch infield hits that led to two Cabot runs in the second. The Panthers added two more runs in the third, and Cabot chased Brasher with three runs in the fourth.

"They scored their first two runs and they didn't hit the ball out of the infield," Harpenau said. "That kind of rolled a few balls through. Some days balls are hit right at you, and some days they find a hole.

"We've just got to keep playing and trying to get better."


Junior Mac Moody was another positive for the Mavericks. The first baseman was 3-for-3 and helped set up Southside's only run when he lined a 3-0 pitch to left field to move Brock Thibodeaux — who had walked to open the inning — to third. He later scored on Jake Melton's fielder's choice.

Moody raised his average to .481. He's 13-for-27 overall and 3-for-6 against 7A-Central pitchers.

Whittington allowed two hits and one run in his outing.

"Baseball's a funny game," Harpenau said. "The last time he was on this field he gave up eight hits in two-thirds of an inning, and they (Van Buren) rolled things through at every possible place on the field. Today, he was a lot better, and we've got to have that."
