CULLMAN – It was Senior Night in Cullman as the Bearcats took on the Brewer Patriots in an important area game. Both teams had trouble scoring runs through seven innings and it was a strike-out duel between Brewer's Dakota Bennett and Cullman's Will Morrison; it took extra innings to settle things, and a pinch-hit game-winning sacrifice fly by Weston Norton helped the Bearcats take home a 1-0 win to improve their record to 26-6 on the season. They are now 8-1 in their last nine games.
Brewer looked to get things started in the opening inning against Morrison. Jacob McMinemon led off the game with a single, then after consecutive strike outs by Morrison, Zac Self hit a single to put runners on first and second with two outs, but Morrison got out of the inning without any runs. Cullman was held hitless through the first two innings, using the small ball to get something going against Bennett. Grayson Taylor gave the Bearcats their first hit of the game with a bunt single, then Levi Thomas also laid down a bunt single with two outs to put runners on first and second. But Owen Lovell went down on three straight pitches to end the inning.
The strikeouts started to really pile up for Bennett and Morrison as Morrison had 10 through six innings and Bennett had 12. Cullman looked to finally scratch that first run on the board in the bottom of the sixth. Noah Fondren led off the inning getting hit by the first pitch, then Thomas drew a four-pitch walk to give Cullman their best chance of scoring the first run of the game for either team. Lovell moved Fondren to third on a fly ball to right field. Jacob Heatherly went down swinging, then Fondren got caught between third and home in the middle of Carter Bowen's at-bat and was tagged out for the final out of the inning.
Both pitchers retired the side in the seventh inning, half of them on strikeouts, and the game went into extra innings, scoreless. The strikeouts continued to pile up in extras and in the bottom of the ninth, Levi Carnes took over as the new pitcher for Brewer, and Cullman had a chance to win the game. Lovell got things off to a perfect start for Cullman, lining a double over the right fielder's head. Heatherly drew an intentional walk, then Carson Freeman came in to pinch-hit for Bowen and he moved both runners to third and second, respectively, on a sacrifice bunt. Trent Price also drew an intentional walk to load the bases for another pinch-hitter: Weston Norton. He fell behind 0-2, fouled off a pitch, then on a 1-2 pitch, he lifted a fly ball to left field, which was caught, but the throw-in was too late as Norton came through big in extras for Cullman to win an important area game. The Bearcats remain perfect in area play at 9-0.
Morrison went the distance, throwing a two-hit shutout. He did not walk a batter and struck out 15. Norton had the game-winning RBI. Taylor, Thomas and Lovell had hits for Cullman. The Bearcats will take on Brewer once again in a doubleheader on Thursday at Brewer; it starts at 4:30.
Bennett pitched eight shut-out innings, allowing just two hits, walking two and striking out 18. McMinemon and Self had the only hits for Brewer.
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