CULLMAN – Owen Lovell is known to many who follow high school baseball for his ability as a power hitter.
But Lovell has another part that got plenty of attention Tuesday.
The junior right-hander went to work and put away the Hartselle Tigers' thoughts of ending the Cullman Bearcats' baseball season in the second round.
Lovell threw a complete game, giving up six hits, and had great assistance from his defense in Cullman pulling out a 2-0 victory to win the second round AHSAA series in Class 6A, two games to one.
When trouble appeared, Lovell stepped up his game on the mound. He also had help from his defense.
The middle infield of shortstop Kolby Robinson, second baseman Carter Bowen and first baseman Trent Price turned three double plays, two of them in critical stages of the game.
Lovell had a couple of runs early to work to his advantage. A throw to first on a ground ball he hit to shortstop in the Cullman first scored Robinson. Robinson led off the inning for the defending 6A state champions with a double.
Then in the third, Levi Thomas was walked with one out, moved to second when Lovell earned a walk and a single by Noah Fondren sent Thomas home.
Despite giving up two early runs, Ben Kimbrough went the distance for the Tigers. He surrendered four hits, but walked four. His infield committed two errors, one that turned out to be the first run for the Bearcats in the latest encounter between the two.
Hartselle had something going with a runner at second and one out in the fifth. But a line drive was caught by Robinson, who went toward his right to snare the ball. He then threw to Bowen who was covering second and the inning ended on a line-out double play.
Lovell allowed a one-out single to the Tigers in the seventh. Then it was time for the infield to put the game away. A grounder was handled perfectly by Robinson, who threw to Bowen at second who then hurled a strike to Price at first and Cullman punched its ticket for the quarterfinal round.
The Bearcats are now 37-11 and went 6-1 vs. Hartselle this season. Cullman has defeated Hartselle in 19 of its last 20 meetings, dating back to the 2014 season.
Cullman will face Oxford this weekend in the quarterfinal round at Bill Shelton Field.
Game times were not set immediately after the series with Hartselle was completed at 6:24 p.m. Tuesday.
