This article is part of our “Throwback Thursday” series. This article is from our June 20, 1997 files.

 

The Dixie Pre-Major baseball squads from Andalusia and Opp battled for bragging rights Wednesday night in Opp.

 

When the dust settled Opp was the winner by a score of 10-1.

 

Andalusia did not score in the top of the first after Chad Griggs drew a lead-off walk,

 

Opp starting pitcher Eric Henderson settled down and went on to put together an impressive performance on the mound.

 

After walking Griggs, Henderson threw a pitch in the dirt and when it got past the Opp catcher Griggs advanced to second base.

 

Then, Henderson seemed to excel under pressure as he fielded a comebacker off the bat of Andalusia’s Derek Caraway and threw to first for a force out.

 

Opp had one out on Andalusia, but Andalusia had a runner on third base after Griggs advanced on Caraway’s grounder to Henderson.

 

Opp got out of the jam without giving up a run when Henderson struck out the next two Andalusia batters.

 

The Opp offense also responded after watching the Andalusia squad threaten to score early in the contest.

 

Opp scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning before the Andalusia defense could retire the side.

 

In the second inning, Andalusia once again started off the inning by drawing a walk after the first batter struck out.

 

However, the offense stalled after Griggs drew his second walk of the game to give Andalusia runners on first and second.

 

However, the Andalusia offense did not produce any runs in the inning as Caraway and Seth Johnson flied out to right field.

 

Opp came back with a run in the bottom of the third inning to increase their lead to 3-0.

 

However, it was not until the fourth inning that the Opp offense exploded, scoring seven more runs to go up 10-0.

 

Andalusia started the fifth inning against relief pitcher Casey McLeod needing at least one run to extend the game and prevent the 10-run rule from being enforced.

 

The fifth did not start off looking good for Andalusia as the Opp defense retired the first two batters.

 

Needing one out to end the game, Opp’s McLeod faced Griggs and lost the one-on-on duel.

 

Griggs hit a single into center field to get Andalusia’s first hit of the game and then stole second base to get in scoring position.

 

Caraway drew a walk to keep the rally alive and then Johnson ripped the ball just inside the left field line to score Griggs.

 

However, that would be all for Andalusia in the fifth inning as McLeod got the final out against Jeffery Dunn.

 

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Opp needed one run to go back on top by 10 runs and end the game, but were unable to score.

 

In the end, it did not matter, as Opp hung on to win the game by a final score of 10-1 and improve to 19-4 on the year.

 

Andalusia and Opp will both be in action this weekend at a tournament in Panama City, Fla.