Logan County's hitting and pitching were good enough to win the Cougars' regional baseball opener Memorial Day at Western Kentucky University. Once
again, however, its defense didn't do enough to advance past a team that's been a little better all season.
The Cougars made three infield errors and two subpar throws from the outfield in a three-run sixth inning, which propelled the Allen County-Scottsville
Patriots to a 5-3 win at Nick Denes Field.
It was the third win of the season over the Cougars for the Patriots, who were eliminated 7-2 the following afternoon by Russell County in the
semifinals. AC-S had beaten the Cougars 2-1 in nine innings in the first week of the season and then 12-9 on May 13.
Logan scored two runs in a hurry to start the game. After two outs, Dustin Cartas walked and starting pitcher Brett Sowell doubled in a run. Then John
Logan Dockins singled in the second run. Justin Hopkins ran for catcher Cartas and Jacob Hopkins for pitcher Sowell.
The Cougars threatened to score again in the second inning. Gage Hales and Matt Cook stroked back-to-back singles to start the inning, and Ryan Basham
moved them up. Ryan Harper walked to load the bases, and the guy Cougar fans want up in situations like that was at the plate. Cartas, however, flied
out to end the threat.
In the third, Sowell and Hales each walked, but Patriot pitcher Chris Ogles struck out Nathan Oberhausen and Cook to quell that uprising. The Cougars
had stranded six runners in the first three innings, and they were to pay for that later in the game.
The third Cougar run scored in the fourth inning. Dustin Nash hit a ball deep to left center. Two outfielders converged on it, but neither caught it.
Harper advanced Nash, and this time Cartas connected for an RBI single. Ogles then retired the next seven Cougar batters, all but one on strikeouts.
AC-S scored a run in the first inning on three singles, all of them up the middle. They tied the game in the third on a walk, a sacrifice that didn't
produce an out, and an RBI single by Cory Cooper.
The game turned around in the sixth inning. Ogles got his second hit. Mack Hobdy hit a ball off Sowell's foot that Cook fielded on the edge of the
outfield. He tried to get the out at first, but threw the ball into the dugout, moving the runners up. The go-ahead run scored on a short sacrifice fly
when Oberhausen's throw from the outfield went to the mound instead of home. The next batter reached on Harper's error at short. Then number nine
hitter Eli Weaver singled to right, the first Patriot hit that hadn't been over or slightly right of second base.
The Patriots were back to the top of the order. Sowell got a fly out to right, and the inning could have ended on a double play, but the throw to
second was off line. The third infield error of the inning was made by Basham at third. Sowell was victimized by the defense, and Coach Ethan Meguiar
pulled him from the mound. Right fielder Lawton Jackson came in to pitch. He walked Seth Peay but got Cooper to pop out to end the nightmare.
The Cougars still had a chance to tie the game or take the lead in the top of the seventh. When Ogles walked Harper for the second time, Coach Kerry
Harwood called on his ace, Devin Stovall. He struck out Cartas, but Sowell came back from his pitching disappointment to get his second hit of the game
in his last high school at-bat. The tying runs were on, but Cooper induced a double play grounder to end the game and the Cougars' season.
Joining Sowell as senior starters were Cook and Oberhausen; they were the team's only 12th graders at season's end. Dockins, Jackson and the Hopkins
twins are juniors, Harper and Nash sophomores, and Cartas, Hales and Basham freshmen. Logan finished 14-21.