MARIANNA--The Wallace Govs dropped a pair of games here Friday in the Chipola Invitation Baseball Tournament. In their first game of the day, the Govs fell 9-2 to the Chipola Indians. In the nightcap, the Govs fell 13-5 to the East Mississippi Lions.

In game one, the Govs Jake Middleton and the Indians Austin Brown had a scoreless pitching dual going. Brown breezed through his half of the innings, while Middleton constantly pitched himself into and out of trouble, still holding Chipola scoreless.

But in the bottom of the fifth, things changed. That's when Middleton came out of the game and was replaced by Clint Lafferty who immediately ran into trouble. It was a walk and a hit batter that initially started the downfall. Then with two runners on base, Lafferty gave up a two-RBI double to Zaid Diaz. After another walk, the Indians got three consecutive run scoring hits. RBI singles from Colin Gueerra and Josiah Sequin added two more runs, The big blow of the inning came from the very next hitter. Miguel Hucas slapped a two-run homer over centerfield. In a half inning the game had gone from scoreless to a 7-0 lead.

Chipola tacked on two more it the sixth. That came via a two-run homer from JC Vanek.

The Govs finally got on the board in the top of the seventh. After Blake Wynn walked, Jackson Cliatt hit a two-run homer. And that was it for the Govs.

The problem in the second game against the Lions was the same problem the Govs have experienced in most of their losses—one bad inning. In this case, it was the sixth inning. The game was tied 5-5 when the Lions struck for five runs. Once again it wasn't because of a bunch of hits. It was due to free passes. Five Lions walked in the inning, including one with bases loaded. Four runs scored on a grand slam off the bat of Jackson Rodgers. The Lions added three runs in the seventh to account for their final score.

The Govs used a total of six pitchers in this game. Collectively, they issued 11 walks and hit two batters. Defensively, the team also made two big errors which resulted in three runs scoring. The Lions only had eight hits.

The Govs had seven hits of their own. Jackson Cliatt went 3-for-3 with an RBI and he was also hit by a pitch. Kason Gleaton went 2-for-4 with a double, Evan Taylor reached base three times on two walks and an error,

The Govs will play two more games Saturday in the Chipola tournament. Wallace will begin conference play Thursday at home against Bishop State.