By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PETAL — The last couple of weeks of the off season were pretty tough on veteran Harrison Central head coach Neil Frederic.

Now, the opening week of play has been pretty rough on his Red Rebels.

Facing some extremely tough opposition, HCHS dropped to 0-2 on the young season after falling to home-standing Petal 13-3 in just five innings Saturday afternoon.

The action came in the Panthers’ own “Runway Classic” here at Petal High School. Petal moves to 2-0 on the year with the win.

“I really believe our guys are competing on and off the diamond,” Frederic said, after the game. Frederic was told just before the season started that this would be his last season at HCHS by the school’s administration.

“It’s early and we just have to continue to take advantage of this opportunity to play this great game. I love our guys and know they love me. We need to play one pitch, one out and one inning at a time.”

The Red Rebels came to Forrest County with a losses to defending Class 5A state champion Vancleave on Friday night 8-4 after starting the season trailing St. Stanislaus 6-1 on Tuesday in a game that wasn’t completed.

And despite taking a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first frame for HCHS Saturday, it turned out to be more of the same for Frederic’s crew when all was said and done.

Jayden Cooper led the game off for the Red Rebels and promptly smacked a double to center field. He came around to score just a couple of minutes later, when a ball off the bat of HCHS’s M.J. Conner was misplayed by the Panther infield into an error to make it 1-0.

However, by the time the Red Rebels cracked the scoreboard again, Petal had taken complete control with eight straight runs.

The Panthers wasted no time in quickly responding, turning to the long ball to retaliate as Fischer Howell cracked a solo home run with one out in the bottom of the first to make it 1-1. Tanner Beliveau’s two-run ringer later in the frame gave the home team a 3-1 lead it would never relinquish.

Petal took control in the next inning, scoring five runs to extend its advantage to 8-1 thanks to two more long balls from the same earlier culprits.

Howell’s second round-tripper in two at bats was that of a two-run clout to make it 5-1, and then Beliveau added a three run bomb later in the frame to make it 8-1.

“We have gotten in trouble by giving up runs after we have put some runs on the board,” Frederic continued. “I know we will start posting some shut down innings and eliminate crooked numbers. We lost the center of our line up last year who played a lot of innings on defense. We have mixture of young kids and older kids who will only get better.”

The Red Rebels added two runs in the top of the fourth, thanks in part to a run-scoring fielders choice by Kaynen Beard.

Just for good measure, Beliveau added a two-run single in the bottom of the inning to make it 10-3. He ten cranked his third home run of the day, another two-run shot, in the bottom of the fifth to end the game early.

Logan Barefoot’s two singles were tops for HCHS.

Beliveau paced Petal with four hits, including his three home runs and a double, and those nine RBI’s.

Cooper Giger picked up the pitching win for Petal, while Conner started and took the loss for HCHS.

“We won’t press, we will only press forward,” Frederic concluded. “We are a play, pitch or an at bat from some momentum. I look forward to showing up Monday to empower them all to give Championship Effort.”

The Red Rebels travel to Long Beach Tuesday night.