Talent aside, Logan County is an experienced and deep baseball team. Russellville is young, inexperienced and lacking in numbers. It showed Tuesday when the visiting Cougars beat the Panthers 19-0 at Kelly Russell Field in a district game.
Caleb Bruner, who has signed to play for Western Kentucky University, pitched a complete-game, on-hit shutout, homered among his two hits, and scored a run.
Fellow senior Hunter Britt had a big game at the plate. He homered, singled, drove in three runs and scored twice. Two other seniors, Tucker Baldwin and Daniel Beaty, each had three hits and scored three runs. Two of Beaty’s were doubles. Baldwin also stole a base.
Junior Michael Riley had three hits, two RBIs and a run. Classmate Jackson Campbell was on base four times with two each of hits and walks. He scored a run.
Freshman Bradley Taylor doubled and singled, drove in two runs and scored twice.
Also getting hits were Matt Harper, D.J. Beard, Luke Woodall and Nick Wooden. Harper and Riley were hit by pitches.
Four Panthers reached base off Bruner. George Ortiz singled, and Evan Humphrey, Colby Nichols and Jacob Procter were hit by pitches. He didn’t walk anyone, and the Cougars played errorless baseball.
Humphrey pitched the first 10 innings for Coach Blake Crabtree’s Panthers and gave up nine runs on 11 hits and three walks. Nichols got the next 10 outs, allowing three runs on seven hits and two walks. Ortiz came on to get the last out, and faced eight batters.
Logan County sent 53 batters to the plate and Russellville 24 in the seven innings.
A highlight of the junior varsity game came when freshman Dillon Porter, who was hospitalized over the weekend after a chemotherapy treatment, not only batter but put the ball in play and almost beat out the throw.