The Newton County Cougars split a pair of close games on the baseball diamond last week as they begin final preparations for division play to start.
The Cougars took a 6-3 win over Lamar School on Friday and then lost a 6-5 extra inning game to Southeast Lauderdale on Saturday.
Newton County, now 4-4 on the season, will return to play on Friday as they play a doubleheader at Neshoba Central. The Cougars will take on the Rockets at 11 a.m. and then play Madison Central at 1 p.m.
County 6, Lamar 3
The Cougars scored three runs in the fifth and held on to take a three-run win over the Raiders on Friday.
Lamar opened with two in the first before County answered with one in the second and two in the third to take a 3-2 lead. Lamar tied the game with one in the fifth while County put the game away with three in the fifth.
County had just four hits but made them count as David Burton homered and drove in two runs. Tyson Wood also homered, scored twice and drove in two runs.
Burton started on the mound and pitched five innings and gave up three runs on two hits and three walks while striking out 11. Gatlin Huber pitched two innings and gave up just one hit and struck out one to pick up the save.
SE Lauderdale 6, County 5
The Tigers scored one run in the bottom of the eighth to take a walk-off win against the Cougars on Saturday.
County scored single runs in the first, second and sixth innings while scoring two in the seventh to send the game into extra innings. Southeast scored two in the second and single runs in the third, fourth, sixth and eighth innings.
Southeast outhit County 9-7 in the contest. Braxton May was 2-for-3 with two RBIs while Braxton Thoms was 2-for-4. Hayze West doubled and drove in a run.
Marcus Mowdy started and pitched three innings, giving up three runs on six hits and two walks while striking out two. West pitched the last 4 2/3 innings and gave up three runs on three hits and two walks.
