The McCracken County Mustangs are moving on after defeating Carlisle County in the opening round of the First Region Baseball Tournament. A first inning spurt combined with a stellar outing on the mound by Will Fox made the difference in the 6-0 win.
“I was really proud of our guys. I thought they came out ready to play,” McCracken head coach Zach Hobbs said following the win. “I was really proud of our guys responding to the schedule change, with getting on the bus at 7 a.m. instead of 10 a.m. There were a lot of changes out of our control, but I’m glad we got it done. I’m glad we played well and came out and competed.”
Junior Will Fox’s outing on the mound was nothing short of incredible this Monday morning. He battled through the entirety of the game, with his 100th pitch being his last. In seven innings, Fox surrendered just two hits and no runs, all while striking out eight batters.
“He’s been a guy for us all year,” Coach Hobbs said. “We were trying to get him out a little earlier to save some pitch count, but you have to win to go to the next game. Gage (Reeves) was my first relief, but he tweaked his hamstring a little bit. I said to him you’re just going to have to battle through here, and he was ready to do that.”
The Mustangs took advantage of three walked batters to kick off the game in the first inning. They got on the board after Landon Grace drove in one with a sacrifice fly out to left field. This was followed with a two RBI single by Gage Reeves to increase the lead to three. An error scored the final run of the inning, and had McCracken sitting out in front with a comfortable lead.
From here the game turned into a defensive duel. Fox continued to deal on the mound, working out of jams when he did get into trouble with runners on. Casen Mitchell, who recently returned from injury, took over not he mound for Carlisle. He allowed just one run in his two innings of relief, before Koltyn Perez came in and did the same with his three innings.
The Comets had a few opportunities to score with runners on throughout the game, but just could not get one to cross hime plate. Three runners stranded in the fourth killed a chance to gain some momentum, leaving them in a tough spot.
Ultimately the final score ended as 6-0 with he Mustangs moving on to the semifinal round of the Region Tournament, where they will face Marshall County, a team they had two tight wins over in the regular season.
“We just have to come play baseball every day. Just go compete. Win, lose, or draw, this is a great club. They worked really hard and I’m proud of them,” Hobbs said. “We’re going to come out tomorrow and face a good Marshall County team. It’ll be a good baseball game. Marshall has done a really good job., they’re one of the better teams in the region obviously, so we have to be prepared to play.”
MCCRACKEN COUNTY 6, CARLISLE COUNTY 0
MCHS4 0 0 1 0 1 0- 6 8 0
CCHS0 0 0 0 0 0 0- 0 2 2
WP: Fox ; LP: Kelly
3B: Gagnon
TB: Gagnon 4, Casebier 1, Thompson 1, Truitt 1, Reeves 1, Grace 1, Fox 1 ; Perez 1, Perez 1
HBP: Dunning, Grace
SB: Thompson, Truitt, Kern, Reeves, Short
CS: Gagnon
E: Bruer, Kelly