BEARCATS EARN STATE BERTH

The Booneville Bearcats punched their ticket to the Class 3A state tournament with a 7-6 win over Bergman Friday.

The Bearcats (16-6) were relegated to the third place game after a 3-0 loss to Paris on Saturday. The opponent will again be a familiar one as Danville lost their semifinal game to Elkins.

Bearcats 7 Bergman 6

The Bearcats led throughout before a pair of errors and a couple of hits got Berman three seventh inning runs to cut a once comfortable lead to 7-6 with the tying run aboard.

Brooks Herrera induced a ground ball to Jace Washburn to finally end it, giving the Bearcats their fifth one run win of the season.

Herrera (7-1) threw a complete game, allowing seven hits and three walks and striking out seven.

The Bearcats led 1-0 after an inning and a half. In the second Peyton Tatum reached on an error, moved to third on a wild pitch and came home on a Dunn Daniel ground out.

Herrera helped himself with a double in the Bearcat third that chased Dylan Todd, aboard on a Panther error, to third. After Rylen Ray drew a walk, Dax Goff singled past the third baseman for two runs and Tatum lifted a fly ball to score a run to score Ray for a 4-0 lead.

Bergman scored a run on a two-out single in their third but the Bearcats used singles by Todd and Herrera and a triple by Ray to make it 6-1 in the middle of the fourth.

The Panthers parlayed an error, two singles, a walk, and a passed ball into two runs to make it 6-3 through four innings.

The Bearcats added the eventual difference making run in the sixth when Ray singled, Goff walked, and Tatum singled to score Ray and it was 7-3.

Paris 3 Bearcats 0

Dax Goff (3-1) threw a complete game and struck out 11in a 107-pitch effort.

Goff allowed just six hits and walked three, routinely coming up with big pitches with two out to strand runners, nine in all.

All of the scoring came in the bottom of the third inning when an infield single and a hit batter both scored on a ball down the left field line that became a double.

That runner scored after a hitter dove into first and was called safe.

The Bearcats were held to just one hit, a flare by Jace Washburn that fell safely. There were five walks, two to Brooks Herrera, who both times made his way to third but was unable to complete the trip around the bases.