By GRAHAM POWELL
Leader sportswriter
Despite both teams totaling seven hits for the game, the Cabot Red junior American Legion team was handed a 14-5 defeat to Hot Springs Lakeside in four innings Saturday at Brian Wade Conrade Memorial Field.
Even though the two teams had the same number of base hits, Centennial Bank’s three pitchers that threw Saturday combined for eight walks and three hit batters.
The Lakeside Rams walked just one batter the whole game, and Cabot committed three errors to Lakeside’s one.
Lakeside scored its first at-bat. Rams’ leadoff hitter Caleb Lloyd was hit by a pitch to start the game. A groundout by two-hole hitter Colton O’Keefe advanced Lloyd to second base.
A strikeout followed for the second out of the inning, but Rams’ cleanup hitter Harrison Russell drove in Lloyd with a stand-up double to deep left field, giving Lakeside a 1-0 lead.
The score remained 1-0 till the third inning, when Lakeside added nine runs to its side of the board. Lloyd was hit by another pitch at the start of that inning, and O’Keefe walked the following at-bat.
Catcher Erick Aguirre followed with a stand-up double to right center, which drove in Lloyd and O’Keefe and gave Lakeside a 3-0 cushion. Russell walked the next at-bat. A groundout followed, but shortstop Zac Goins walked to load the bases.
Blayne Porterfield was then hit by a pitch, giving him an easy RBI as Adysen Kelley, Aguirre’s courtesy runner, scored. Russell scored the next at-bat on a passed ball at home plate and Lloyd later sent two more runs across the plate after reaching on an E6.
As the low throw got by Cabot first baseman Chris Odom, Goins and Porterfield scored while Lloyd ended up at second base.
Those two unearned runs gave Lakeside a 7-0 advantage, and with two outs in the inning, O’Keefe drove in two more with a double to deep right center.
The Rams scored their 10th run of the game on a pop up to second base by Russell that was dropped by the Centennial Bank second baseman.
Trailing 10-0 going into the bottom of the third, Cabot finally broke through with two runs scored. Leadoff hitter Blake McCutchen singled to the left-field gap to start the inning.
Braden Jarnagin hit an infield single to first base the next at-bat, and three-hole hitter Denver Mullins drove in McCutchen with a single up the middle of the diamond.
Cabot cut its deficit to 10-2 the following at-bat after cleanup hitter Easton Seidl hit into a 4-6 fielder’s choice, which allowed Jarnagin to score.
Lakeside added its final four runs in the top of the fourth. Porterfield walked to start the inning.
Race Tittle reached on an error at third base the next at-bat, and Kyle Lightsey walked to load the bases.
Lloyd then singled to left field, scoring Porterfield. Aguirre walked with the bases loaded two batters later, scoring Tittle and giving Lakeside a 12-2 lead.
Russell drove in another run after hitting into a 6-4 fielder’s choice and Carter West set the Rams’ run total for the game after doubling to deep center field.
In the bottom of the fourth, Cabot Red center fielder Jacob Slunder hit a stand-up triple to deep right center, and he scored the next at-bat after Nicholas Belden reached on an error at second base.
Belden went to second base on the bad throw to first, and he scored two batters later on a double to right center by McCutchen. That made it a 14-4 game. McCutchen advanced to third base the next at-bat on a sac fly to right field by Jarnagin.
Mullins hit a ground-rule double to straightaway center after Jarnagin’s at-bat, which allowed McCutchen to score and set the final score in the process.
O’Keefe got the win on the mound for Lakeside (2-2). He threw three full innings, giving up two runs on four hits. He walked just one Centennial Bank batter and struck out three.
McCutchen and Mullins led Cabot offensively. Each went 2 for 3 at the plate, while teammates Jarnagin, Seidl and Slunder had one hit apiece.
West went 3 for 4 at the plate for Lakeside to lead all batters.
The Cabot Red team (3-3) was scheduled to play in a doubleheader at Morrilton yesterday after deadlines, and are scheduled to play in another doubleheader tonight at home at 6 p.m. They will play Sheridan in the first game and then face the Cabot White team (1-6) after that.
The Cabot Red team is also scheduled to face Heber Springs on Saturday.