The improvement in the Mineola Yellowjackets baseball team is obvious. It is remarkable what dedicated effort can do in a month. They are simply not the same team that began the season. 

Mineola’s 11-6 win over Mt. Pleasant Chapel Hill last Wednesday swept the Red Devils and gave the Jackets a 2-0 mark in district.

Wednesday’s performance was notable for three reasons: the bottom half of the Yellowjacket batting order smacked eight of the team’s 13 base hits, Mineola committed no fielding errors, and left-hander Matthew Ballew recorded another workmanlike start.  

Ballew gave up three runs on four hits, struck out 10 and issued four free passes. When watching Ballew work, it is very apparent just how much effort he puts into each pitch. One can get the impression that he has run out of gas, only to watch him surge back and dispatch the next hitter in short order.

Mineola put runners on base in each inning and pushed one run across in each of the first two innings. Chapel Hill tied the game in the third, 2-2.

The Yellowjackets batted around in the bottom of the third, tallying six runs. Braydon Alley and DJ McDowell hit back-to-back doubles to start the scoring. McDowell scored when – in a very nice job of hitting – Ballew slapped a two-strike single into right.  

Ballew and Trey Rushing, who had reached on a walk, scored on Jace Tyndell’s first-pitch double. Tyndell was followed by Preston Haskin and Ty Burch who slammed doubles into left field. When the dust lifted, Mineola had taken an 8-2 lead. 

Chapel Hill recouped a run in the fifth and Mineola added three in the bottom half.

Tyndell started a Mineola rally in the fifth with a double to left-center and scored on a Burch sacrifice fly. Preston Haskin beat-out an infield hit. A Chapel Hill error scored Haskin and Dalton Hamlin, who had been hit by a pitch. 

Mineola went into the seventh with an 11-3 lead. 

Alley came in to throw the final inning. He dispatched the first two Red Devil hitters with strike-outs, before Chapel Hill managed a three-run rally. Alley got the final out on a swinging strike-out.

It was a banner night for Jace Tyndell and Preston Haskins. They contributed five base hits as the number 8 and 9 hitters and were critical in each of the Jackets’ scoring rallies. 

Mineola hosts the Harmony Eagles Friday with first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m.