Moments of fun and exhilaration have been few and far between this season for the Cougar baseball team, but they took full advantage Monday evening to enjoy those experiences as the Whitesville Trinity Raiders paid a call to Don Lee Field.
The Raiders came in to Monday’s tilt with just two wins on the season and the Cougars left no doubt they would not be picking up win number three on this day as they pounded the Raiders 14-0 in five innings to win by the mercy rule.
Three Raider pitchers took a 15-hit beat-down from the Cougars that included three doubles and a triple. Cougar catcher Briley Napier had three hits on the day, including one of the doubles, and drove in three runs.
Three Cougars, Noah Bullock, Damon Simon and winning pitcher Braxton Hodges, each had two hits, with Simon and Hodges driving in a pair of runs each. Right fielder Ryan Johnson also drove in a pair of runs, one on a ground out and the other with the triple.
The Cougars scored all the runs they would need in the first inning when they crossed the plate three times. Napier had an RBI single and Rylee Shoemaker drove in another with a bases-loaded walk.
Andrew Haycraft and Bullock had back-to-back singles opening the second inning to put runners at first and third. Haycraft scored on a ground out by Simon, and Hodges later drove in Bullock with a two-out single to make it 5-0.
Grayson County put the game on ice in the third inning, sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring six times. Bullock, Simon, Napier and Hodges all drove in runs in the inning.
The Cougars added three unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth, and when Hodges retired the Raiders in the top of the fifth, the game was called by the mercy rule. Hodges pitched all five innings, allowing no runs on four hits. He walked one and struck out five Raider batters.
With the win, the Cougars improved to 4-16 for the season.
By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com
Rylee Shoemaker crossed the plate during the six-run third inning.
Caden Woodcock, a courtesy runner for catcher
Briley Napier, rounds third in the first inning.
Noah Bullock throws to first for a putout as winning
pitcher Braxton Hodges looks on.
