Bearcat Weston Norton (9) connects with the ball Tuesday against Curry. / Nick Griffin
CULLMAN – The Curry Yellow Jackets traveled to Cullman Tuesday night for a matchup with the Bearcats, and thanks to 12 hits and five different arms on the mound, the ‘Cats picked up a 13-3 win. Tyler Nunnelley got the start on the hill and after getting the first three outs, Cullman’s offense got out to an early lead over the Yellow Jackets.
Cooper Beck scored the first run for the ‘Cats when Weston Norton brought him in on a sacrifice fly to right field. The Bearcats added to their lead in the second, starting with an RBI single from Dylon Wallace. Norton brought in another run for the ‘Cats on an RBI single and Wallace scored from third on a Grayson Taylor sac fly that put Cullman up 4-0 going into the third.
After throwing two innings, Nunnelley finished up his start, allowing one run on two hits. Seth Gable rolled out for the third with a man on first and second. After the lead runner scored on a sac fly, Gable finished the inning with a strikeout to give the ‘Cats a 4-1 lead headed to the bottom of the inning.
The Bearcats couldn’t get anything going in the third but got a quick top of the fourth from Braxton Jones who went three up, three down and picked up two strikeouts.
Cullman pushed across six more runs in the bottom of the fourth, including RBI singles from Will Morrison and Clay Conway to take a commanding 10-1 lead into the fifth. The Yellow Jackets added two runs in the fifth inning, but after the Bearcats tacked on a run in the fifth, Brennen Norton ended it in the sixth with a two RBI single into right field that gave the ‘Cats a 13-3 victory.
Head Coach Brent Patterson feels like his team is starting to move in the right direction and credits a lot of that to the practice schedule returning to normal, allowing them to determine their best lineup and rotation.
“Honestly it really feels like we just completed our first week. I know we’re two or three weeks in, but because of lack of consistent days out on the field and stuff it kind of feels like we’re just now getting going. We really don’t know our lineup yet, we’re really not set, we’re still in that process of trying to figure some stuff out so as far as today, I thought we took what they gave us, and we barreled some balls up,” said Patterson. “We had some pretty good at bats early when the game was in question and really, I thought we were able to lay some bunts down in good places in pressure spots where that kind of created an inning for us. We had some guys that squared some balls up too with runners on, so overall, offensively, I think we got better.”
Patterson continued, “The whole focus of today was that we’ve got to get a little better, we’ve got to get better offensively. Our pitchers, for the most part, have done a good job. The games we’ve lost; we’ve lost a 1-0, a 2-1, a 6-5, but offensively the bottom line is we haven’t done enough offensively, and we feel like we can score, but like I said, we’ve to figure a lineup out, we’ve got to figure who goes where and games like that are good for us,” he said. “The weather looks good for the rest of the week and it’s a good thing that we’ll get right back out here after a practice day tomorrow against a great Northridge team on Thursday and continue to try to answer questions. Every day is an audition basically so we’re just thankful that it’s a short turnaround and we’ll get to come back out here and do it again.”
The win moves the ‘Cats to 4-5 this season and they’ll look to try and build some momentum against Northridge Thursday at 4:30 at home.
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