Bat Dawgs sink Mighty Lakers’ ship in district opener, advance to regional

Posted May 25, 2016 at 2:01 pm

Win over Russell County is first in 39 years

For the first time since 1977, the Clinton County Bat Dawgs defeated the Lakers of Russell County in baseball. The 1-0 victory came in the first round of the 16th District Tournament held at Metcalfe County Monday night.

The game remained scoreless until the top of the fourth inning when Clinton County’s Zack Garmon singled to left field. Holden Shepard pinch ran for Garmon. The next batter up for Clinton County was Conner Duvall.

Duvall laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Shepard to second base. Caleb York then drove in the only run of the game on a base hit, but was thrown out at second trying to squeeze in a double.

For the remainder of the game, Clinton County’s defense held strong behind the pitching of Jeffery Collins, pictured in the photo below.

Collins finished the game with 10 strikeouts and held Russell County scoreless.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, it looked as though Russell County was going to make a last minute run to win the game, however, with the bases loaded and two outs, a hard hit grounder to shortstop Jacob Bertram was all that was needed to seal the win.

Bertram fielded the ball clean and stepped on second base for the third out of the inning and to bring home the victory for Clinton County.

According to third year head coach Michial Conner, that was only the third time Russell County had lost in district play since they moved into the 16th District.

Clinton County played Metcalfe County, too late for press deadline, on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

In 2009, Clinton County defeated Cumberland County in the opening round of the district tournament, breaking a 23 year drought from the regional tournament. This year will be the first time back to the regional tournament since 2009.

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