By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
The game changed radically for Sylvan Hills between Forrest Harrison’s two fifth-inning at-bats Wednesday night.
Harrison, Sylvan Hills’ center fielder, led off the pivotal fifth with a hit then came up again to hit the game-winning single and cap a six-run rally as the Bruins beat Cabot 6-5 at Mike Bromley Field.
Harrison led off the inning with a single, only the second hit Cabot starter Dustin Morris allowed as Cabot built its 5-0 lead.
With the two-hour time limit nearing, the hit could not have been more timely as it sparked the Bruins’ rally that was aided by a pair of Cabot errors.
“Before the inning, I told them this was our home field and we were either going to protect it or not,” Bruins coach Billy Sims said. “They went to work and took care of business. There was a bunch of good hits and a lot of hustle. They just all bowed up and played baseball.”
Morris struck out Aaron Sarna after Harrison’s hit, and Cabot appeared to be on the way to a second out when Sammy Pittion hit a routine grounder to shortstop. But Cole Thomas committed the first Cabot error as Harrison to advanced to second.
Blake Hill singled to right to drive in the first Bruins run. Andrew Terry walked, which brought up leadoff man Greg Atchinson, who popped out to center.
That brought Dalton Freeling to the plate to hit a drive down the third-base line to score Pittion. A bad throw by left fielder Rob Rankin ended up at the fence behind first to allow Hill, Terry and Freeling to score and tie the game 5-5.
The poor defense got to Morris, who had been solid to that point but hit Lance Hunter and cleanup batter Conner Eller to put the winning run in scoring position for the Bruins and bring up Harrison for his game-winning hit.
“He had a one-hitter through five; he only threw about 67 pitches,” said Cabot coach Chris Gross, filling in as head coach for Andy Runyan during the AAA athletic dead period. “But the three errors brought them back in the last inning.”
Cabot took control in the top of the third when Zach Patterson walked and Jarred Wilson reached on an error by center fielder Harrison. Rankin then loaded the bases with a single to shallow center.
Atchinson, the Bruins’ reliever, walked Conner Vocque with the bases loaded to drive in the first run and Cole Thomas knocked in Wilson on a liner to left. Dylan Wilson hit a sacrifice fly to score Rankin and give Cabot a 3-0 lead.
Rankin added to Cabot’s lead in the top of the fourth inning when he reached on an error by second baseman Lance Hunter and scored when Wilson singled to left-center.
Rob White led off the Cabot fifth with a triple to deep right field and scored one batter later when Hunter committed another error on James McCranie’s grounder.
Harrison was the only player for either side with more than one hit, as he went 2 for 3 with an RBI and a run. Rankin scored two runs for Cabot.
