By GRAHAM POWELL
Leader sportswriter
A fifth inning rally by the Cabot Red Centennial Bank junior American Legion team made Saturday’s matchup with Morrilton interesting, but the home team fell short in the end as Morrilton left the Cabot Sports Complex with an 8-7 win.
Morrilton scored two runs in the top of the second inning and Cabot scored a run in each of the first two innings to knot the score up at 2-2.
Both teams were held scoreless in the third, but Morrilton answered with three runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take a six-run, 8-2 lead.
Just as it appeared the visiting team was going to pull away with relative ease, the Centennial Bank Red squad battled back with five runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Cabot Red relief pitcher Mike Havard held Morrilton scoreless the rest of the way, but the offensive momentum stopped for the home team as Cabot failed to score again.
Caleb Harpole started the game on the mound for the Centennial Bank Red team. He threw four full innings before turning the pitching duties over to Havard in the fifth.
Harpole struck out three Morrilton batters and walked three during his time on the hill.
He gave up five hits and as many runs, but only two of those were earned.
The errors continued to plague Cabot in the fifth inning, as all three of Morrilton’s runs scored in that time were unearned. Havard allowed just one hit in his two innings of work.
Offensively, Cabot Red outhit Morrilton 8-6 and Centennial Bank five-hole hitter Jarrett Pitchford led both teams by going 3 for 4 at the plate. He scored one run and drove in a game-high three RBIs.
Havard and Ethan Holland were the only other Cabot players with multiple hits – each had two. Havard led the Red team with two runs scored.
Wes Brown had the only other hit for Cabot as he went 1 for 2 at the plate with an RBI. Even though Cabot struggled in the field, it had its chances to do more damage to Morrilton at the plate.
The Red Centennial Bank squad left a total of seven runners stranded on the bases. Morrilton left five. Besides Havard and Pitchford, Josh Kelpine, cleanup hitter Tyler Fowler, Jacob Womack and Holland scored one run each for Cabot.
With last week’s 8-6 loss to Sheridan, the Cabot Red team has lost its last two games by a combined three runs.
The Red Centennial Bank junior squad (5-14) will try and get back on the winning side of things tomorrow against Conway in an early afternoon game at 2:30 at the Cabot Sports Complex.