By GRAHAM POWELL
Leader sportswriter
The Cabot Red Junior American Legion team had little trouble with visiting Beebe on Friday at Brian Wade Conrade Memorial Field, as the host Centennial Bank team pummeled the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts team 17-3 in five innings.
Beebe scored the game’s first run in the top of the first inning, but Cabot Red answered with two runs in the bottom part of the inning, and four more in the second to push its lead to 6-1 after two.
The O’Reilly’s squad got another run on its side of the board in the top of the third to cut the deficit to 6-2, but Centennial Bank answered with its most productive inning of the game.
Cabot Red scored nine runs in the bottom of the third to take a commanding 15-2 lead. Beebe scored its final run its next at-bat, and Cabot answered with two more runs in the bottom of the fourth to set the final score.
“The last five or six games we’ve been scoring a ton of runs,” said Cabot Red coach Justin Moore. “I think that’s the second game in a row that we’ve scored 17 runs. We’ve been hitting the ball really well. I hate putting substitutes on the bench because they’ve been hitting the ball just as well as the people in the lineup.
“I’ve just got to keep moving guys around, which is great because I’m missing a lot of guys that usually play a lot of innings for me, and everybody that’s been here has just been crushing the baseball. Everybody’s been doing their job.”
Tyler Woodall scored the first run for either team. The Beebe second baseman singled to center field to start the game, and he scored two batters later on a single to the left-field gap by teammate Jake Majors.
Cabot starting pitcher Michael Havard led off the bottom of the first with a single to center field. Chris Odom followed with an infield single to third base, and Havard scored two batters later on a 4-3 groundout by cleanup hitter Easton Seidl.
That tied the game at 1-1, and Cabot took a 2-1 lead on a sacrifice fly to right field by Jacob Slunder the following at-bat.
Eugene Germer led off the bottom of the second with a stand-up double to right center, and he scored three batters later after Havard reached on a dropped fly ball in left field.
Odom got his second single of the game the next at-bat, and three-hole hitter Denver Mullins followed his at-bat with a three-RBI, inside-the-park home run to deep right center, which put Cabot up 6-1.
Beebe scored its second run of the game in the top of the third on an error at second base with two outs, but Cabot answered with its nine-run inning to push its lead to 15-2.
Dakota Faircloth singled up the middle of the diamond to lead off the top of the fourth for Beebe. He then stole second and third base before scoring on an error at first base the following at-bat.
In the bottom of the fourth, Cabot’s Jonathan Harpole walked to lead things off. A single by Havard the next at-bat put Harpole in scoring position, and he scored on a 6-3 groundout by Odom.
Havard then scored on a single to left field by Mullins, which set the final score. Seth Cummings came in to relieve Havard on the mound in the top of the fifth, and he retired the side, which ended the game because of the 10-run lead after five innings sportsmanship rule.
Havard earned the win on the hill. He threw the first four innings and gave up just one earned run on four hits. He walked just one batter and finished with a game-high six strikeouts.
Cabot outhit Beebe 13-4. Havard, Odom and Mullins each had three hits. Teammates Slunder, Germer, Harpole and Tanner Wilkie had one hit apiece. For Beebe (2-7), Woodall, Majors, Faircloth and Ty Searcy had one hit each.
The Cabot Red team (14-5) also got a mercy-rule win in the nightcap. They played the Cabot White Junior team and beat them by the final score of 15-0. Cabot Red plays again today in a doubleheader at home against Bryant. The first game is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.