By CHAD MATCHETT
Special to The Leader
The Cabot Centennial Bank American Legion players knew without a doubt they were going to win the late game Thursday night in Cabot.
Of course, it helps when the two teams playing are the Cabot AA and A squads.
The older AA Cabot bunch got the best of the junior squad, but it wasn’t easy in a 2-1 win that lasted four innings.
The first three innings saw a pitcher’s duel between the junior team’s Nick Thomas and the AA team’s Riley Knudson. Both starters showed off sharp, knee-buckling curveballs.
Both teams managed base runners each inning, but couldn’t push across any runs until the fourth, and final, inning.
Grant Bell and Brent Dean had back-to-back singles in the bottom of the first inning for the AA team, but Dean was gunned down at home from center after pausing coming around third. Thomas froze the next batter with a 2-2 curveball for the third out.
Both teams put two runners on base with two outs in the bottom of the second and top of the third, but were unable to move them around. Thomas got a grounder to short in the bottom of the second to get out of the jam, while Knudson used his curve to finish off fanning the side around singles by Josh Dollarhide and Lee Sullivan.
The junior team manufactured a run in the top of the fourth after Helpenstill singled and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Aaron McKenzie. Landon James launched a double to left-center to drive in the go-ahead run. James was caught stealing home on a broken play after a walk to Trent Frizzell and a single by John VanHoveln. A strikeout ended the scoring threat.
Adam Hicks came in to pitch for Thomas at the end of the third and ran into trouble in the fourth with a walk to Josh Mathis and a single by Hayden Vinson. Hicks’ big curveball got him a strikeout. Helpenstill picked up another single, this time on a short fly to right that was dropped after a terrific diving attempt to catch it, forcing Mathis to stay on third as the bases were loaded
Grayson Cole fought off several tough pitches, working the count full, before hitting a deep drive to right center for the game-winning two-run double.
