VINEMONT – On a beautiful but windswept diamond, the Vinemont Eagles welcomed the Hanceville Bulldogs to Mike Cupp Field Tuesday afternoon for a cross-county contest.
Not a team to start slow, Hanceville got the sticks going early and put Vinemont in a deep hole before the Eagles even stepped foot in the batter’s box.
Leadoff hitter and resident third baseman Campbell got the hit parade going for the Bulldogs with a solidly hit single. He would quickly find himself on second due to a balk called on Stewart, Vinemont’s starting pitcher. Weissend would bring him home with a hard liner to left that skipped past the Eagle’s left fielder allowing Weissend to go into second standing up as well as collecting the RBI.
Hurst was next to put his name in the hit column with a booming double to put runners at second and third with nobody out. Rice climbed in the box and promptly delivered a two-run single. Yates would reach on a fielder’s choice, forcing Hurst at second.
The Eagles recorded their second out via a strikeout and were hopeful of getting out of the inning without further damage, but that was not to be the case. Cruce and Holmes each singled to load the bases for Dyer, who was plunked on the left hip with a fastball, earning the RBI the hard way. Campbell would come to the plate for the second time in the inning, this time driving a single to center and scoring two to cap the huge six-run Hanceville inning.
Vinemont broke through and dented the scoreboard for the first and only time in the second with Harrington and Hoffman driving in runs, but the Bulldogs would add three in the third and four in the fifth, enough to invoke the mercy rule and end the game by a final score of 13-2 in five innings.
Hanceville was led by Rice who had five big RBIs. Weissend added three, Campbell two and Hurst, Cruce and Dyer each had one.
Vinemont’s Hoffman and Harrington had the two RBIs for the Eagles.
