CLARKSDALE - Pillow Academy baseball coach Tim Burton knows his team missed a great chance to gain ground in the North AAA Division II race.
The Mustangs lost 3-0 to a struggling Lee Academy team here Tuesday in the first game of a three-game series. The two teams will play a doubleheader Thursday at Pillow.
Pillow falls to 11-11 overall, 7-6 in the league standings, while Lee moves to 4-11, 2-11.
The Mustangs started the day one game back of Washington and Magnolia Heights in the Division II standings. Washington lost Tuesday 2-1 to Jackson Academy.
"We had an opportunity to pull even with Washington, and we own the tiebreaker against them," Burton said. "But we're still a game back going into Thursday."
Magnolia Heights beat Heritage 15-9 Tuesday to move to 9-4 in league play.
Senior Jared Meeks (3-1) pitched a solid game in a losing effort. He allowed three runs on four hits while striking out eight and walking one in six innings of work. But Meeks got no help from his offense as PA managed just five hits, with only two of them coming in the same inning, and struck out 10 times.
"We had runners at second and third with one out in the first, and that was the only time in the game that we had a runner at third base," Burton said.
Lee scored two runs in the bottom of the third inning off back-to-back singles.
The Colts added a third run in the sixth with a lead-off single, followed by an RBI double.
James Davidson led the Mustangs at the plate with two singles. Andrew Ables, Bo Farmer and Gaston Lyon each had a single.
