The Caldwell County Tigers grabbed an early lead and then held on late Friday evening to defeat Carlise County 7-4 in an All A sectional. With the win the Tigers advance to the quarterfinals of the All A baseball tournament, which will be played next Saturday in Lexington.
The Tigers got a strong pitching performance from Shane Burns, who went 5 2/3 innings, giving up 2 runs on only one hit. Burns struck out 12 batters and walked three before he came out of the game.
Caldwell County got on the board in the bottom of the first inning. Dylan Gray and Bryce Thomas has RBI singles to put the Tigers in front 2-0 after one inning. The Tigers then extended the lead in the bottom of the 3rd, when they score four runs to push the lead out to 6-0. Dylan Gray had an RBI double. Bryce Thomas had a sacrifice fly. Noah Brown and Tyler Ramey also had RBI singles in the inning.
Carlisle County took advantage of a Caldwell County error to score a run and cut the Tiger lead to 6-1 in the top of the 4th inning. The Comets then scored another run on another Caldwell County errot in the top of the 6th to trim the lead to 6-2.
The Tigers got some insurance in the bottom of the inning when Shane Burns drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to make it 7-2.
However, the Comets were determined to make it interesting, scoring a pair of runs to make it to 7-4. The Comets were able to load the bases with two outs and bring the go ahead run to the plate in the top of the 7th inning. Tiger closer Bryce Thomas was able to induce a ground ball to 2nd to end the game and set the Tigers on their journey to Lexington.
Dylan Gray went 2-4 for Caldwell County, with a double and two RBI’s. Bryce Thomas was 2-2 and also had 2 RBIs for the Tigers.
Caldwell County will advance on to the quarterfinal round of the All A state tournament, Saturday, May 5th in Lexington.
