By ANN THARP
Special to The Leader
The Cabot Centennial Bank American Legion Junior team traveled to Little Rock’s Gary Hogan Field, home of the LR Trojans, and defeated the Little Rock Pythons 11-6 on Tuesday evening. Cabot never trailed in the game, but it was as close as one run after three innings. Centennial Bank picked up three big insurance runs in the sixth and final inning to close out the victory.
“Our pitching kept us in the ballgame,” Cabot coach Cody Perrin said. “We had some key hits throughout the game. We’ve got some guys that are kind of beat up right now, so we had to move some guys around, but they really stepped up. I’m really proud of them, of how they’ve carried themselves.”
Cabot picked up two runs in the top of the first after two were out. Austin Scritchfield singled, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on a hit to left by Mason Griffin. Logan Bell singled to right, and Hunter Price had a hit to short center field to score Griffin for the 2-0 advantage.
The lead off hitter for the Pythons, Matt Wawak, singled in the bottom of the inning, moved to second then third on pitches that got to the backstop, then scored on a ground out to shortstop by Andrew McDonald to cut the lead in half at 2-1.
Centennial scored twice in the second. Blayse Quarnstrom walked and Tanner Wilson doubled down the left field line. Quarnstorm scored on a wild pitch. Wilson moved to third and scored on a ground out to increase the lead to 4-1.
The Pythons also scored two runs in the bottom of the frame for a score of 4-3.
Cabot picked up another three runs in the third on a hit by Price and three base on balls. Two runs scored on wild pitches and one on a RBI ground out by Masen Wade.
Blake Buffalo had come in to relieve Centennial Bank starting pitcher Will Camplain in the third inning. Quarnstrom moved from short to the mound to get two strike outs to end the frame, but Little Rock had answered with three runs for a score of 7-6.
Griffin singled and Price doubled to bring him in for Cabot in the fourth to add one run.
Quarnstrom got the Pythons in order in the bottom of the fourth, and Bell took the mound in the fifth inning and retired the side with two strikeouts and a ground out.
Three runs for Centennial Bank in the sixth inning set the final score at 11-6. Zach Edmondson entered the game to run and scored. Buffalo hit a double to the left center gap to score Price and Jake Moudy.
Bell retired the Pythons in the bottom of the inning to end the game.
Price had three hits for Cabot and scored twice. Griffin had two hits and scored two runs. Moudy reached base all four times on walks and scored two times.
Wawak and Nathan Mangum had two of the three hits by Python batters.
Cabot picked up a second win on Wednesday in Cabot, defeating the Stuttgart Ricemen by a score of 5-4. The victory gives them a record of 6-4.
The Centennial Bank team scored three runs in the first inning on two lead off walks, two base hits and a sacrifice fly. Jackson Olivi led off in the fourth inning with a hit and scored the fourth run. Scritchfield led off in the fifth with a hit and scored the fifth run for the 5-1 lead.
Stuttgart scored one run in the second inning on a triple and a single and did not score again until the sixth when two crossed the plate. Two errors aided the Ricemen to score their fourth run of the game in the seventh inning, but Brock Martin, who pitched the last two innings for Centennial, struck out the last hitter for the 5-4 win.
Scritchfield pitched the first five frames for Cabot and struck out nine with no walks and allowed only the two hits and one run.
Scritchfield also led the team in hits with three, while Wilson and Olivi each had two.