The Caldwell County Tigers scored in six of their seven at bats Thursday evening as they picked up their 11th win in their last 12 games. The Tigers cruised 11-4 in a 7th District matchup against Hopkins Central in Morton’s Gap.
The Tigers got on the board in the 1st inning when Jase Felker grounded out and drove in the first run of the game to make it 1-0. Caldwell County added another run in the top of the 2nd as Tate VanHooser grounded out to drive in a run and make it 2-0.
The Tigers then took advantage of two Hopkin Central errors in the 3rd inning to score 4 runs and push the lead out to 6-0. The Storm came back with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning to make it 6-1.
Caldwell County extended their lead with a pair of runs in the top of the 5th, when Shane Burns hit a two run shot to right field to make it an 8-1 game. The Storm responded with two of their own to make it 8-3.
The Tigers were right back at it in the top of the 6th, as they scored two runs to make it 10-3. Tate VanHooser had another RBI single and later scored on a Storm error. Hopkins Central battled back to score a run in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 10-4.
Caldwell County added an insurance run in the top of the 7th inning on a solo home run off the bat of Bryce Thomas to finish out the scoring.
Bryce Thomas had a big game for the Tigers, going 3-4 with a home run and two RBIs. Jase Felker and Tate VanHooser were each 2-4 with 2 RBIs.
Bryar Riley went 5 1/3 innings on the mound, giving up four runs on eleven hits, striking out six, while walking two.