By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Cabot Panther baseball team dropped a pair of tough conference losses at Mountain Home on Wednesday, losing 1-0 and 3-2 and dropping to 2-4 in the 7A/6A East Conference.
“Our pitching and defense was outstanding, we just couldn’t get the bats going,” Cabot coach Jay Fitch said. “Their left hander (Matt House) is really good and he threw an outstanding game. Game two we missed so many opportunities by hitting into double plays. I think we hit into four double plays in that game.”
Mountain Home’s lone run came in the bottom of the last inning on a wild pitch with the bases loaded.
Logan threw six and two-thirds innings, giving up just five hits while striking out eight.
He worked out of a jam in the second inning when the Bombers got three of their five base hits.
With one out in the seventh inning, Michael Weh-meyer doubled to centerfield and Stetson Adams walked. A wild pitch allowed the runners to advance, prompting Fitch to call for an intentional walk to load the bases, setting up a force at any base and a potential double play. Instead, another wild pitch allowed the game-winning run.
“Ryan pitched another great game,” Fitch said. “We just have to find a way to score runs. We’d been seeing the bats really coming around recently, but we went a little backwards in this one. It’s not a good feeling to drive that far and lose two like we lost them. But we’re still in it. There’s a lot of baseball left to be played and there’s no reason we can’t get back to hitting the ball like we had been. We just have to move forward.”
House went the distance for the Bombers, giving up four hits and fanning seven. Cabot got runners in scoring position in four innings but failed to get the timely base hit.
Logan got to work at the plate in game two, hitting an RBI single to right field for a quick Cabot lead in the bottom of the first inning. Conner Vocque was hit by a pitch to start the inning and stole second base to set up Logan’s RBI.
The lead didn’t last long. In the top of the second, Mountain Home’s Cole Anderson hit a solo home run to knot the score at one.
Cabot left two runners in scoring position in the third inning, but got the lead back in the fourth. Kason Kimbrell hit a single to left-centerfield that scored Riley Knudsen, who had reached on a leadoff double. But just like the first run, Mountain Home answered in the very next half inning, this time with two runs that proved to be the decisive ones.
Mountain Home got one earned and one unearned run in the top of the fifth.
Cabot was at the top of the order in the bottom of the fifth, and the trio of Vocque, Logan and Casey Vaughan all reached base, Vocque drew a walk while Logan and Vaughan got base hits. That loaded the bases with no outs, but a hard ground ball turned into a rare 3-2-3 double play that left first base open. Mountain Home filled that gap by intentionally walking Coleman McAtee. Scott Burnett then grounded into a fielder’s choice at third base that ended the promising inning without a run scored.
Cabot flew out to centerfield three times in the seventh inning.
The Panthers host an important conference doubleheader on Tuesday against Little Rock Central.
