Clinton High School Baseball had a busy opening week playing 4 games. Clinton won against Heber Springs, Nemo Vista and Batesville, but was defeated by Beebe.

Monday, February 26th CHS baseball team traveled to play rival Heber Springs. Being the visiting Clinton got the bats started first. Senior Bryce Dodd led off the inning with a single up the middle. Then senior Ty Johnson stroked a ball to deep left center field but it was ran down by the center fielder, and Dodd advanced to second. Then junior Aaron Hogue drove a ball over the right fielder’s head for a triple which scored the first run of the game and it was downhill from here for the Heber Springs Panthers. Aaron Hogue got the start on the mound and was the winning pitcher. Clinton beat the rival Panthers with a final score of 10-3.

Thursday, March 1st the YellowJackets had their home opener against the Beebe Badgers. Beebe got out to an early lead 3-0 but the Jackets rallied back to a 5-3 lead. However, the Badgers were not finished scoring 6 runs taking back the lead 9-5. Clinton scored 1 in the bottom of the 7 inning and had the tying run on second baseball but their efforts came up short. The Clinton Yellow Jackets were drafted by the BeeBe Badgers 10-8 for their first loss of the season. Sophomore Kragen Bradley was the losing pitcher.

Friday, March 2nd CHS baseball had a home game against the Nemo Vista Redhawks. The Red Hawks were easily handled by the YellowJackets. Clinton got the offense started in the first inning scoring 16 runs. The Red Hawks never recovered from this punch. Clinton YellowJackets mercy ruled Nemo Vista in 5 innings with a final score of 17-7. Starting and winning pitcher was junior Keaton Gresham.

Saturday, March 3rd Batesville High School traveled to Clinton to play a mid-day match up. Ty Johnson got the start on the mound. Batesville got the bases loaded with no outs in the top of the first but scored their first and final run. Johnson pitched a complete game 2 hitter only allowing 1 run and striking out 10 in 7 innings. The Clinton offense was held below their average runs but was not enough to be beat. The YellowJackets won 5-1 advancing to 3-1 on the year. Winning pitcher was senior Ty Johnson.

Clinton High School baseball team has had a good start going 3-1 in their first week. Considering they have not had a single practice on the field with the whole team present, due to rain and basketball players just joining the team. Clinton Baseball’s next game is Tuesday, March 6th against the Atkins Red Devils at 4:30. This will be the YellowJackets Conference opener. Go Jackets!!!