Senior pitchers Tyler Coleman and Mark Alan Belcher came within an inning of a no-hitter and one pitch of a shutout Saturday in leading the Logan County Cougars to their first win of the season.
     Coleman had a sensational outing as the starting pitcher. He threw five innings of no-no ball. Only one batter reached base, and that was a hit batsman. He got the first five batters on routine groundballs, struck out the side in the fourth inning, and had four straight strikeouts before ending his time on the mound with a fly ball to centerfielder Nathan Oberhausen, who made a good catch, and a groundout to third baseman John Logan Dockins.
      When eighth grader Dustin Cartas hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the fifth, Logan led Metcalfe County 4-0. Coach Ethan Meguiar told Coleman to take the rest of the day off.
     “You don’t get many chances to pitch a no-hitter, but it would have kept me from pitching against Russellville Tuesday if I had gone any further, so I understood why he did it,” Coleman said.

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    The Logan Independent Journal will record play-by-play of Tuesday’s game and have it on this website for people to hear in the days following the game. Future Cat Clashes in baseball and softball are also scheduled for replay, Advertisers are welcomed and needed.
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     Belcher, who had just been released by the doctor after an elbow problem earlier in the week, was wild when he threw his first pitches of the season in the sixth inning. In fact, he walked the first three Hornets he faced. Meguiar came to the mound to talk with him, but elected to leave him on the mound.
     Belcher’s way of saying thanks was to pitch out of that major league jam without letting a run score. He got a foul popup to first baseman Dustin Lee and then struck out the next two batters to end the threat.
     He wasn’t as fortunate in the seventh. Ryan Harris and Noah Hendley stroked back-to-back singles to end the no-hitter. Then Belcher recorded a strikeout and a fielder’s choice. He had an 0-2 count on Tyler Jessie. Another strike would have ended the game. But on a 1-2 count, Jessie singled in Hendley to spoil the shutout. Belcher then got his fourth strikeout in two innings to end the game, 5-1 in Logan’s favor.
     The Cougars struck in the first inning when freshman shortstop Ryan Harper and Cartas singled with an out. Harper scored on Lee’s RBI double.
      That 1-0 score was also they need for six innings. In the fifth, junior Gabrielle Combs singled, Harper walked, and Cartas hit the three-run blast over the Farmers’ Hardware sign in left field.
     The Cougars added an insurance run in their final at-bat. Brett Sowell singled, Oberhausen walked, Matt Cook hit into a fielder’s choice, and Belcher stroked an RBI single for the fifth run, scoring Sowell.
     Cartas, who also started last year as a seventh grader, had two hits and a walk while driving in three runs. Also getting hits were Combs, Harper, Lee, Sowell, Cook and Belcher. It was a balanced attack with eight of the nine positions in the batting order reaching base.
     Logan was 0-4 coming into the game. They had lost 8-7 at Hopkinsville the night before as the result of a couple of darkness-aided outfield errors. They played well with Coleman pitching in a 4-2 loss at Allen County-Scottsville to open the season, lost 9-5 to Barren County and had trouble competing with powerful Owensboro.
     Metcalfe County came into the game with a 2-1 record, having beaten Adair County and Green County while losing to Greenwood.
     The Cougars are scheduled to play at Russellville Tuesday in their first district game. If weather permits, the junior varsity game will be played first.