CULLMAN – Seven innings were not enough Friday night when the Northridge Jaguars came rolling into town with visions of toppling the Cullman Bearcats. The Bearcats won in extra innings, 4-3.
It was a pitching duel between Levi Thomas of Cullman and Markie Buettner of Northridge in the early going, each hurler holding the opposing team scoreless, until the bottom of the third when the Bearcats broke through for three big runs.
Carson Freeman led off the inning via an error on the Jaguar left fielder, an error that came back to haunt them. Freeman swiped second three pitches later to get himself in scoring position. Noah Fondren joined his teammate on the base paths, albeit painfully, as he was plunked by a Buettner pitch. Levi Thomas was up next and he laid town a textbook bunt that wound up in no man’s land to load the bases for Owen Lovell. The power hitting Lovell got a pitch to his liking and smashed it to third where third baseman Lucas Coker opted to try for the force at home, but the ball got past catcher Bastion Brumfield, allowing Freeman and Fondren to touch home. Jacob Heatherly was the next Bearcat to climb in the batter’s box where he lifted the ball to right, allowing courtesy runner Hayden Henderson to score on the sac fly to make the score 3-0 in favor of the Cats.
Cullman maintained their three-run lead until the top of the sixth when Northridge finally figured out Thomas. With one out, Drew Welk III reached first on a wild pitch on strike three. Coker followed with a walk and Will Butler singled to right. Evan London struck out for the second out of the game and it looked like the Cats would escape unscathed, but clean-up hitter Steven Fairburn had a different plan. He found the sweet spot in right field, lofting a blooper in the void for a two-RBI single. Austin Randolph followed with a run-scoring single to tie the game at 3-3 with one-and-a-half innings left to play in regulation.
Neither Northridge nor Cullman was able to score in the seventh, so the fans were treated to a little free baseball.
Thomas retired the Jaguars on a pair of strikeouts and a ground out in the top of the eighth to set up a little extra-innings heroics for the Cats. Heatherly led off the inning with a walk and Chayton Grimmett came in to pinch run, for the winning run. Thanks to a sac bunt, Grimmett found himself at second with one out. Trent Price followed with an infield single sending Grimmett to third. Ben Smith was sent to first via an intentional walk to set up a force at any base, but it did not matter when Weston Norton put the ball in play, allowing Grimmett to score, giving Cullman a thrilling 4-3 walk-off victory.
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