The nation's fourth all-time longest high school baseball win streak came to an end Saturday evening when Oak Grove (Hattiesburg, Miss.) handed host Sumrall (Sumrall, Miss.) a 5-1 defeat in the second game of the Lamar County Tournament.
Oak Grove sophomore pitcher Tyler Odom did something that few teams have been able to do over the past two seasons - shut down the Bobcats' powerful offensive attack. Odom went six-plus innings and gave up only one hit to pick up the win and end Sumrall's streak at 67 games in a row.
Connor Barron had a home run for the only hit in
Sumrall's loss to Oak Grove.
Courtesy photo
The Bobcats fall eight games short of the all-time record of 75 wins by Homer (Mich.), set in 2005. La Cueva (Albuquerque, N.M.) is second on the list with 70 wins, also set in 2005, while Archbishop Molloy (Queens, N.Y.) won 68 games between 1963 and 1966. Sumrall's 67-game win streak stands in fourth place.
Sumrall (25-1) defeated Purvis (Miss.) 21-3 earlier in the day to stretch the streak to 67 games and broke a tie for fourth place with Capitol Hill (Oklahoma City, Okla.) at 66 games in a row. Capitol Hill set that mark between 1952 and 1954.
The loss for Sumrall comes against a team it defeated 9-0 on April 8. However Sumrall bashed 12 hits in that win, including two home runs and three doubles. Odom held Sumrall hitless for six innings before giving up a home run to Connor Barron at the start of the seventh inning. Hunter Curtis got the final three outs for Oak Grove, which upped its record to 20-6 on the season.
Oak Grove got to Sumrall starter Luke Lowery early, scoring two runs in the first inning. The Warriors added two more in the fourth.
"I'm just glad it happened against a good team like Oak Grove and that it didn't come in a playoff situation," Sumrall coach Larry Knight told the Hattiesburg American. "My hat's off to Oak Grove."
The Bobcats had not lost since falling to Franklin County 3-0 on May 2, 2008. Sumrall went on to win the first of its back-to-back state championships two weeks later with a 12-1 win over Mooreville. Sumrall was 36-0 in 2009 and was ranked as the No. 1 team in the country in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 Rankings.
