The McCracken County Mustangs find back-to-back wins over the Marshall County Marshals after a three-run homer from Braden Casebier led to a 5-3 victory at home on Friday night.
The game started out slow, with neither team bringing in any runs in the first three innings. This drought would be broken in the fourth inning with the Mustangs batting at the top.
Mustang shortstop Kendrick Dunning smacked a home run deep into left field to draw first blood. With no other runs in the top of the fourth, the Mustangs had a 1-0 lead.
The Marshals would respond, bringing in two runs off a double from center fielder Kannon Dunn, who would then be brought home off a bunt from shortstop Maddox Cope.
Down 3-1 heading into the fifth, Mustang head coach Zach Hobbs knew his team had to clean up the mistakes.
“I thought we were a little lackadaisical,” Hobbs said. “I didn’t think we were as focused as we needed to be.”
But the fifth inning wouldn’t bring any runs for the Mustangs either, with Marshal pitcher Thomas Bagby continuing to stay solid on the mound despite getting close to 100 pitches on the night. Bagby would finish with 107 pitches and 66 strikes.
“Bagby threw a really good baseball game,” Hobbs said. “He’s going to be really fun to watch this year.”
Bagby continued into the top of the sixth inning where he struck out the first two Mustang batters. But left fielder Braden Truitt got a base hit to find some momentum.
Right fielder Brady Thompson continued the momentum getting a base hit as well. Then, with a man on first and second, the designated hitter Braden Cassebier tanked one into left field and over the fence to take a 4-3 lead.
Hobbs said it’s encouraging that the game leading homer came from the ninth batter in the lineup.
“It’s good seeing different guys be successful,” Hobbs said. “Our nine hitter hits that three run homer so that’s pretty cool that the bottom of our lineup got that rally going.”
The final run was brought in by Dunning in the seventh inning, who after hitting a double would be brought home by pitcher Will Fox on a pop fly to left field.
Fox’s final contributions came on the mound, ending on three strikeouts in the bottom of the seventh to seal the 5-3 win.
The Mustangs used a total of four pitchers on the night. Caden Kern had 21 strikes on 36 pitches, Joshua Penrod had 22 strikes on 36 pitches, Gage Reeves had 23 strikes on 40 pitches, and Will Fox had 23 strikes on 40 pitches.
Having four pitchers get time on the mound was to help prepare for next week, Hobbs said.
“We got a district game on Monday,” Hobbs said. “We play Apollo tomorrow so we’ll run some guys for tomorrow but we have our top four for Monday.”
McCracken County is home Saturday at 11 a.m. to take on Apollo. Their district game on Monday is also at home against Paducah Tilghman at 6 p.m.
MCCRACKEN COUNTY 5, MARSHALL COUNTY 3
MCCR 0 0 0 1 0 3 1 0 — 5 10 2
MRSH 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 X — 3 4 0
2B: MCCR — K. Dunning; MRSH — K. Chiles, K. Dunn
HR: MCCR — B. Casebier, K. Dunning
TB: MCCR — K. Dunning 6, B. Casebier 5, B. Hall 1, B. Thompson 1, B. Truitt 1, L. Grace 1, N. Godwin 1, W. Fox 1; MRSH — K. Chiles 3, K. Dunn 2, C. Wyatt 1
HBP: MCCR — B. Truitt, C. Kern; MRSH — T. Bagby 2
SB: MRSH — C. Wyatt, K. Chiles
RECORDS: MCCRACKEN (6-1); MARSHALL (3-2)