By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Cabot Junior Team 1 got back on the winning track Monday after suffering two losses over the weekend. Team Goss, coached by Chris Goss, beat Cabot Team 2 at Cabot City Park 9-1. That followed a weekend of action that started with a perfect game by pitcher Gavin Tillery in an 11-0 win over Benton, but ended with losses to Texarkana and Bryant on Saturday and Sunday.
Neither of those losses were zone games and won’t count against the team’s standings when zone tournaments begin July 5.
In Friday’s win over Benton, Tillery faced 12 batters in four innings of work, retiring them all in order and striking out five.
Tristan Bulice highlighted a nice offensive game with a spectacular day at the plate. He went 2 for 3with both base hits going for extra bases. He had one double and one triple, walked once and drove in three runs.
Pique and Adam Hick each drove in two runs as well.
In Saturday’s loss at the Hot Springs Lakeside tournament, Texarkana jumped on Cabot early with six runs in the bottom of the first inning. Cabot chipped away with two runs in the third and one each in the fifth and sixth to make it 6-4, but gave up three runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Errors were the major problem. Starting pitcher Landon James gave up eight hits in going the distance for Cabot. He also walked five while the defense committed seven errors.
Cabot got 10 base hits with Dalten Hurst, Brandon Jones, Jonathan Latture and Tillery picking up two apiece.
In Sunday’s loss at Lakeside, Bryant threatened to end the game early, racing out to a 10-0 lead through three and a half innings, but Cabot scored two in the bottom of the fourth to keep from being mercy ruled.
Tillery was on the mound again to start the game, but the Black Sox chased him off the mound in just one and a third innings. Again Cabot committed seven errors while giving up 10 base hits and three free passes at the plate.
On Monday, a seemingly typical day at the park between the two Cabot junior teams took a strange turn in the fifth inning as Team 1 began to pull away from the ninth-grader laden Team 2.
Leading 9-1 with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the fifth, Team 1 tried to steal home and was thrown out. Before the same at bat was over, another Cabot runner was picked off at third base by Team 1 catcher Lino Garcia to end the inning. With Team 2 at the plate in the top of the sixth and a 1-2 count on the batter, Goss ordered pitcher Austin Null to intentionally walk the batter.
It all added up to naught, as Team 1 was unable to score and the game ended at 9-1 in seven innings.
Team 1 hosted Beebe on Tuesday while Team 2 hosted North Little Rock immediately afterwards. Both teams will travel to Conway on Thursday with Team 1 (15-13) playing at 6 p.m. and Team 2 (4-17) following.
