Mustangs late rally falls short against Randolph

The Nixon-Smiley Mustangs hosted the Randolph Ro Hawks for the district opener Tuesday, March 19.

The Mustangs put themselves in an 8-3 deficit entering the bottom of the fifth, but quickly rallied to tie the game at 8-8 in the sixth inning.

After Randolph scored the eventual game winner in the top of the seventh, Nixon-Smiley’s late rally in the seventh came up short in the 9-8 loss to Randolph.

Despite coming up short, Mustangs head baseball coach Daniel Pierce was proud of his players for not giving up to the very end.

“Very proud of these guys. They, in a good way, surprised me. I know they can do great things. I know they're starting to show it. We're moving along in the right direction. I mean it's things we were able to put on the field tonight and the guys working together. Good stuff is happening and great stuff is about to happen for us,” Pierce said.

Randolph took advantage of errors by the Mustangs early in the game, and Pierce said that’s part of baseball.

“Whoever makes the least amount of errors is gonna win. These guys have brought down their error count. And as the season progresses, they're getting less and less. So I mean, again, it showed what they can do,” Pierce said.

The Mustangs will go on the road to Marion Friday, March 22 for their second district match of the season, and Pierce and his team will learn from the Randolph game, he said.

District play has just begun, and Pierce is excited for the next set of district games.

“We're looking forward to get every team that we can. We're looking to be as productive and as successful as possible. But we want to go in and win every ball game that we play,” Pierce said.

“And these kids are starting to believe that they can. At the beginning of the season this is new group of kids and I am very happy to be here to coaching with them and they are making me excited to be part of baseball and I can’t wait how we finish the season,”Pierce said.

First pitch for the Marion match is set for 7 p.m.