The McCracken County Mustangs ended their regular season on a high note Friday night, as complete efforts on either side of the ball powered them to a 10-0 win over No. 3 ranked University Heights in five innings.
“That’s a great way for us to end a regular season,” said McCracken County head coach Zach Hobbs, following the win. “It was an all-around team effort against a great team, and overall just a really good win for us.”
While the bats went to work in the back halves of the innings, the Mustangs would receive a strong night on the mound from sophomore Ethan Atkinson, who earned the win with five no-hit innings. Across his outing, Atkinson would fan three Blazers, only allowing a pair of baserunners with a walk and an error.
“We’re proud of what Ethan was able to do today, throwing a no-hitter against those guys is impressive…he’s going to be a heck of a player for us going forward,” said Hobbs, lauding Atkinson. “For being a sophomore, he stays so composed and just keeps battling. Tonight, he misfields a ball, gets charged with an error, but he stays even-keeled and gets right back to it…The defense played great behind him, too. They hit him hard a couple times, but it was right to our guys, and that’s just baseball.”
For the second time in as many nights, early runs in the first inning would set the Mustangs off on the right foot. Following a pair of no-out walks to start their night, back-to-back singles for Will Fox and Kendrick Dunning would plate the first two runs of the evening to put the Mustangs out in front.
Dunning, who finished his night 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI, was one of three Mustangs to register multi-hit efforts, alongside Luke Whiteside and Brady Thompson. Whiteside would put forward a 2-for-2, one RBI effort out of the eight spot, while Thompson turned over the lineup by going 3-for-3 on the night, rounding out a 6-for-8 week for the senior.
“We just kept on banging, I’m super happy with the approach the guys took at the plate today. We want to take good swings in positive counts not give anybody an easy out, and they did that tonight,” Hobbs continued, on the Mustangs’ hitting. “In the second inning, we had the bases loaded with one out and couldn’t get anything from it, and I thought we tried to do too much and overswung a little bit. But, they adjusted well from there, stayed inside on the ball and competed in two-strike counts.”
The bulk of the night’s damage would come in the fourth inning as the Mustangs batted around for eight runs on as many hits, including a couple of two-run doubles between Lucas Gagnon and Briar Hall. Having wrapped up the inning with a 10-0 deficit, Atkinson would close out the win with a one-two-three top half of the fifth.
Now, the Mustangs will begin their postseason schedule on Monday night, playing host to Community Christian in the Second District Tournament.“Another big part of this was getting out of here without any more injuries, and having all of these guys ready to go for the postseason,” Hobbs concluded, looking ahead. “We’re still nursing a few, but we’re hoping to get everyone going if we’re fortunate enough to be in the regional tournament. Baseball’s a tough game, but I’d say we’re at around 90% right now, which is about as good as it gets at this time of the year. We’ll get some rest over the weekend, then it’s right back to work.”
Game stats
MCCRACKEN COUNTY 10, UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS 0
UHA 0 0 0 0 0 X X — 0 0 1
MCHS 2 0 0 8 X X X — 10 12 1
WP: E. Atkinson; LP: R. Luckey
2B: MCHS — B. Hall, L. Gagnon
TB: B. Thompson 3, B. Hall 2, K. Dunning 2, L. Gagnon 2, L. Whiteside 2, G. Reeves 1, L. Grace 1, W. Fox 1
HBP: MCHS — C. Kern, L. Whiteside
SB: MCHS — G. Reeves, L. Gagnon
E: MCHS — E. Atkinson; UHA — B. Turner
RECORDS: McCracken County (23-7); University Heights (25-7)