Hornets Hang On For Win Over Tigers

By Clint Cox

The Cottondale Hornets baseballs squad jumped out to a big lead and then held on for an 11-7 win over district rival Graceville on Tuesday night. Drew Bellamy got the win for the Hornets on the mound although the Tigers took the first lead of the game. Clay Jenkins scored on a RBI single from Devin Cassidy and Graceville led 1-0 after a half inning of play. Cottondale countered with three runs in the bottom of the first to take a 3-1 lead. Patrick McClain doubled and Ryan Morrisey and Chris Clemmons both drew walks. All three came home to score in the inning as Aaron O’Bert singled and Caleb Toole stroked a sacrifice fly.

The big inning for the Hornets came in the bottom of the third as they were still on top 3-1. The Hornets scored six runs with four of them coming on a grand slam home run by Patrick McClain. Scoring in the inning were McClain, Toole, Clemmons, Devin Thomas, Michael Hill and Trent Jackson. Leading 9-1 the Hornets might have felt they had the game in the bag. Graceville thought otherwise and came right back with six runs of their own in the top of the fourth inning. The Tigers managed to load the bases and then two Hornet errors allow two Tigers to cross the plate. Morrisey came into relieve Bellamy on the mound but the Tigers still kept fighting. With the bases still loaded Nick Papryzcki came home to score on a walk. That cut the deficit to 9-4 and another Tiger scored on a wild pitch to make it 9-5. Two more errors by the Hornets allowed two more Tigers, including Jenkins and Devin Cassidy to score. When the dust settled on the inning Graceville trailed by just two runs at 9-7.

But that would be all the run production for the Tigers and the Hornets managed to get a couple of insurance runs late in the game. McClain led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a double and the scored on a RBI single from Clemmons. Leading 10-7 in the bottom of the sixth inning the Hornets got one more run as Chris Krauser led off the inning with a single and Thomas came into run for him. Thomas advanced to third base on a Tiger error and then came home to score on a McClain RBI single. On that same play O’Bert tried to score from second base but Tiger left fielder fired a shot to home plate and Jacky Miles made the grab and tag out of O’Bert to end the inning. Cassidy managed a double for Graceville in the top of the seventh but that was all the offense the Tigers could muster and the Hornets held on for the four run victory.

Cottondale improved to 3-5 on the season and 2-4 in district play. Graceville fell to 1-6 on the season.