By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Bad luck and fielding mistakes spelled an early exit for the Cabot-Centennial Bank Junior American Legion team from the state tournament in Sheridan. After cruising through most of the Zone 3 tournament, the Panthers lost two straight at state, blowing a late lead and falling 6-5 to Paragould late Friday night, then losing 6-2 to Sheridan on Saturday.
Just before the tournament began, starter and leading hitter Riley Knudsen’s season ended with a mononucleosis diagnosis. Starting outfield Dylan Bowers rolled hisankle in the first inning against Paragould, and starting first baseman Coleman McAtee broke his arm in a collision at first base in the first inning against Sheridan.
“It was just one of those tournaments where if anything could go wrong, it did,” Cabot coach Chris Gross said. “We lost some key players and then we had key players making lots of mistakes. We made way too many errors to win games at the state-tournament level.”
Cabot led 5-0 after three-and-a-half innings against Paragould. Starting pitcher Adam Hicks went six innings, giving up just three earned runs, struck out eight and walked zero. Cabot out-hit Paragould 10-8, but three errors aided the Glen-Sain team’s comeback.
Gavin Tillery threw a one-hitter on Saturday against Sheridan, but walks and errors led to five unearned runs for the host team.
Despite the rough state tournament, Cabot closed the season winning 13 of its last 14 games, going from 13-12 to 26-13 heading into the tournament. The Panthers finished the season with a record of 26-15, with the 26 wins breaking the team’s previous season-win record of 23.
“Overall we had a great year,” Gross said. “We won 26 games for a team record. We started the season poorly. We couldn’t hit the ball at all, and they really turned that around. We had some guys really step up big for us offensively.”
“I don’t have all the totals added up yet, but Riley broke out base hits record and I think our doubles record,” Gross said. “Tristan Bulice broke the home run record. He broke his own record. Last year he hit four, this year he hit five for us. I’m pretty sure there are some other records this team broke.”
Naming a most-improved player was difficult for Gross, but he finally settled on Austin Null.
“From last year to this year it’s Austin,” Gross said. “I’d have trouble singling anyone out for improvement over the course of this season, but from last year to this year, Austin has made a big strides.”
While Gross wouldn’t name a most-improved, he did have a reliable catcher at the end of the season in Dalten Hurst. Bulice also catches, but the original plan was to only certify Bulice as a senior player. He ended up double certifying, but Hurst was still handling most of the duties behind the plate by the end of the year because Bulice was starting for both Cabot teams.
“Dalten got 100 percent better,” Gross said. “He was terrible at the beginning of the season because he hadn’t played this level much. He just worked at it and got better.”
Only one player off the 2012 Centennial Junior team surpasses the junior-level age limit next season.
“I’m really excited about what this team has the potential to do next year,” Gross said. Tillery really came on strong pitching for us. Next year will be the big tell for him. He’s long and left-handed. If his velocity comes up he’ll have some people looking closely at him. Hicks holds our ERA record and we’ll have him back. Lee Sullivan might have been out No. 1 pitcher this year if he hadn’t got hurt early on. So we should be strong pitching and hitting next year.”
