The last two years the Booneville Bearcats have not played during spring break and took a conference loss coming out of the break, so this season head coach Arron Kimes decided to play both during the break and on Monday before resuming conference play.
For the spring break play the Bearcats traveled to Greenwood for a doubleheader on Thursday and the Bearcats will also face Clarksville in another nonconference tilt before resuming conference play with Danville in town on Tuesday.
Although the Bearcats (4-4) dropped both ends of the doubleheader in Greenwood they did find themselves in a tight game for the first time this season — the previous seven games were six five-inning affairs and the other was a 7-0 game.
After a 12-2 five-inning loss in the opener the Bearcats took a 9-8 lead to the bottom of the seventh in the second game before falling 10-9.
In the first game Thursday the Bearcats jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first.
Brooks Herrera led off the game with his first home run of the season and, with two down, Peyton Tatum doubled then scored on a Dunn Daniel single.
Unfortunately that would be it for the hitting attack in game one.
Greenwood got a run back in the bottom of the first through Jace Washburn (shown fielding a ball as a pitcher) did turn a third to first double play.
The Bulldogs took full control with a nine run second that included two hit batters, three walks, an error, a strikeout victim reaching, and four hits, one of which was a bunt.
A pair of sacrifice fly balls in the fourth gave the Bulldogs a 12-2 lead.
Washburn and David Hicks drew walks in the fifth but the Bearcats couldn’t score a run to force the game to continue.
In the nightcap it was the Bearcats again scoring first.
Dax Goff doubled with two down in the first and, during a walk drawn by Tatum, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch.
After a run scoring triple and a passed ball gave the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead the Bearcats tied it at 2-2 on a sacrifice fly by Herrera that scored Matt O’Bar.
A sacrifice fly and an error – the Bearcats committed four in the second game – gave Greenwood a 4-2 lead through two innings.
Goff singled for his second hit leading off the Bearcat third and after one of five Greenwood errors, Washburn bunted his way aboard to fill the bases. A second Greenwood error in the inning tied it and a passed ball gave the Bearcats a 5-4 lead.
Greenwood again scored twice in the bottom of the inning and retook the lead at 6-5. A home run tied it and a two-out double was followed by a single to produce the second run.
With two on and two down Daniel singled home two to give the Bearcats the lead back in the fourth and a double by Washburn – he had three hits in the second game – scored Daniel to make it 8-6.
After Goff retired the Bulldogs in order in the home half of the fourth the Bearcats left Conner Lentz, who had been hit by a pitch, aboard in the top of the fifth.
Greenwood tied it at 8-8 on a pair of fielder’s choice ground balls on which no out was recorded, and an error in the bottom of the inning.
A Washburn infield single and throwing error allowed Tatum to score a go-ahead run in the Bearcat sixth and Goff retired the Bulldogs in order in the bottom of the inning to complete his day on the mound.
The Bearcats got a single from Hicks and a bunt single from Lentz to start the seventh but could not move them.
Errors on consecutive hitters tied the game in the bottom of the seventh and moved the winning run to third. After a pair of intentional walks filled the bases the Bulldogs won it with single to center.
BASEBALL BEARCATS GET IN GAMES DURING BREAK
