On Monday night, the McCracken County Mustangs returned to action at Edward Jones Field, playing host to the Calloway County Lakers. The Mustangs entered Monday looking to kick start a new winning streak, following a tough weekend in which they dropped two out of three games to out of state competition.The Lakers came into the matchup looking to keep their momentum rolling, having won two of the last three. Despite stumbling out of the gates and falling behind early, the Mustangs recovered well over the middle innings to pick up a come-from-behind 5-2 victory.
Left-handed senior Tyler Chapman got the start and the win for the Mustangs, tossing five complete innings of three-hit ball, striking out five while allowing two runs, one earned. Fellow senior Weston Miller closed out the game to pick up a two-inning save, allowing only one hit while recording five strikeouts of his own in a stellar relief outing.
Miller also contributed on the other side of the ball, putting together a 1-for-3, one RBI night. Sophomore Kendrick Dunning, and the senior duo of Griffin Cantrell and Caleb Ehling each went 2-for-3 on the evening, while Scout Moffatt went 1-for-3 with an RBI.
The Lakers got busy straight from the jump to open the first, with their first baserunner coming when Zach Akin was hit by a pitch with one away. With Chapman frequently checking on him at first, a wayward pickoff attempt careened into foul territory, allowing Akin to make his way to third on the throwing error. Shortly after the error, a single from Cole Lockhart brought Akin home, giving Calloway an early 1-0 edge. Lockhart was kept at first over the next two at-bats, as Chapman limited the damage with a strikeout and groundout to end the inning.
Dennis retired the Mustangs in short order in the bottom half of the first, keeping the narrow Lakers advantage in tact, as the visitors looked to expand on their lead. Cruz got the Lakers straight back in business, leading off the second with a single, quickly swiping second with Jacob Akin at the plate. A sacrifice bunt brought Cruz across to third, before a wild pitch brought him home, doubling the Calloway advantage. Chapman sat down the next two Lakers, keeping the score at 2-0.
“Calloway came out ready to play tonight, coach Brannon’s doing a great job with those guys, and they had a great approach at the plate early. We weren’t super sharp to start, and they came out and took advantage of that,” McCracken County head coach Zach Hobbs said. “But we settled in, did what we had to do, and grinded through that game. They came ready to play, but our guys really fought back and found a way to win... Chapman really settled in, I thought he tried to overthrow early and had some trouble locating the off-speed pitches, but he found it, once he did he pitched really well, and that’s how Chapman can throw, we know that.”
After putting two outs on the board in just three pitches, the back half of the second looked to be another clean inning for Dennis. However, a line drive shot into right field by Dunning skipped past Starks in the outfield, stretching a single into three bases on the error, before a single just two pitches later from Miller slashed the Calloway lead in half. A force play at second following a ground ball ended the inning without and further baserunners, with the Mustangs trailing 2-1 through two.
Chapman held the Lakers quiet to start off the third, with the Mustang bats looking to turn the game on it’s head. A single from Cantrell and a walk served to Ehling kicked off the half frame, with both sitting in scoring position following a sacrifice bunt off the bat of Caden Kern. With Eli James at the plate, a fielding error on a ground ball brought Ehling home to put McCracken on top, 3-2, where the score stayed heading into the fourth.
Chapman had firmly found his footing in the game following his rocky start, sitting the Lakers down in order to keep the Mustangs out in front through the middle of the fourth. With the bats warmed up in the bottom of the inning, the hosts loaded up the bases with three straight one-out singles, poised to break the game wide open. A sacrifice fly brought one run across, before the fourth base hit of the inning off the bat of Moffatt gave McCracken the largest lead of the evening, expanding their lead to 5-2 through four innings of play.
Following a scoreless fifth and sixth from either side, the Lakers stepped to the plate in the top of the seventh with one last chance to level the game. Weston Miller, who had entered in relief in the top of the sixth, took the mound to face the bottom of the Laker order, looking to close the door for the Mustangs. Miller wasted no time, striking out the side for the final three outs, securing a 5-2 win for the Mustangs.
With the win, the Mustangs started off a crucial week. Before a Thursday clash against Paducah Tilghman, McCracken will get straight back to work Tuesday for another key matchup against the St. Mary Vikings.
“We’ve got a couple guys ready to go, we’ll throw Harris and Godwin,” Hobbs said. “We just need to go out and play tomorrow, we can’t overlook St. Mary because of Tilghman on Thursday. They’re a good club, coach Haas does a great job with them. I don’t know who we’ll see, but they’ve got a couple of good arms over there.”
First pitch between the Mustangs and Vikings is set for 5:30 p.m. at Haas Field. As for the Lakers, they aim to bounce back this coming Thursday, when they travel to take on Hickman County.
MCCRACKEN COUNTY 5, CALLOWAY COUNTY 2
CCHS 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 — 2 4 2
MCHS 0 1 2 2 0 0 X — 5 9 1
WP: T. Chapman; LP: B. Dennis; SV; W. Miller
TB: CCHS — C. McDaniel 2, C. Lockhart 1, I. Cruz 1; MCHS — C. Ehling 2, G. Cantrell 2, K. Dunning 2, A. Farmer 1, S. Moffatt 1, W. Miller 1
HBP: CCHS — J. Akin; MCHS — J. Farley
SF: MCHS — C. Kern
SB: CCHS — I. Cruz; MCHS — C. Ehling, S. Moffatt
CS: MCHS — W. Miller
E: CCHS — C. Lockhart, K. Starks; MCHS — T. Chapman
RECORDS: Calloway County (7-12); McCracken County (16-6)