By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
SHERIDAN – Kyle Kaufman’s effort on the mound highlighted the Cabot senior team’s first two games in the Sheridan Wood Bat Classic. Kaufman gave up a walk and a base hit in the first inning, but retired the last 12 batters in order to lead the Centennial Bank squad to a 10-0 win over Benton Team 2 on Wednesday to open the tournament.
Kaufman struck out the side in the second inning and finished with seven strikeouts, no walks and one hit allowed for the win.
Cabot got two runs in the first, four in the third and four more in the fifth to end the game on the run rule.
The Centennial squad got just seven hits and took advantage of several walks and errors by Benton. Casey Vaughan got a triple, Tyler Carter a double and Tristan Bulice picked up two base hits to lead the Cabot offensive attack and improve the team’s record to 4-8 after starting the season 0-7.
That record fell to 4-9 after suffering a 12-9 loss to the Texarkana Tigers of Texarkana, Texas.
The Tigers didn’t get many hits and didn’t have to in building an 8-2 lead after four innings. Cabot third baseman Justin Goff had an uncharacteristically bad fielding game, committing four errors while ace left-handed pitcher Ryan Logan struggled with control.
Cabot got some momentum in the fifth inning and actually took the lead with another rally in the sixth. They scored two runs in the top of the fifth inning to make it 8-4, and shut down the Tigers with a strike-them-out-throw-them-out double play in the bottom half.
Bulice walked to start the rally in the fifth. He made it to third when Texarkana failed to handle a Carter line drive in right field. Goff then made amends for his defensive struggles with a deep fly ball into the gap in right centerfield for a two-RBI double.
In the bottom of the fifth, with Vaughan on the mound and Bulice behind the plate, Texarkana had one on base and one out with Eudsley back up at the plate. Vaughan fanned Eudsley and Bulice came up firing to first, where he made a perfect throw to Carter to pick off Hutson and end the inning.
The sixth-inning comeback started with an error at third base off the bat of Tyler Wilkie. Bryson Morris singled to centerfield and Vaughan moved the runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt.
Bulice drew a walk to load the bases and Carter singled to drive in one run. Goff then picked up RBIs number three, four and five with a bases-clearing triple down the third baseline that gave Cabot a 9-8 lead.
Vaughan got two quick outs in the bottom of the sixth, but began losing command of his pitches after that, leading to a four-run, game-winning rally by the Tigers. With two outs, Vaughan walked three straight to load the bases.
He gave way to Morris, who hit the first batter he faced to drive in one run.
Hutson and Eudsley then got back-to-back singles to score the other three base runners and put Texarkana up by the final margin.
Early mistakes were the real back breaker for Cabot. Two errors at third led to two runs for Texarkana in the first inning. Two hits accounted for another as the Tigers raced out to a 3-0 lead. The Centennial squad got one run back in the top of the third. Tristan Bulice was hit by a pitch with one out. Carter then doubled to left field for the RBI. But Texarkana added three more in the bottom of the third.
The Panthers next pool game is at 5:30 p.m. today against Hot Springs Lakeside, a 1-0 loser to Sylvan Hills on Thursday.
