Beech Tree News Network

Over spring break the BCHS Bears baseball team traveled to Shelby County to participate in the Shelby County Wood Bat Classic.  This marked the only wood bat tournament for the Bears this season.

In game 1 of Friday’s action, BCHS went up against the home team, the Shelby County Rockets.  Senior right-handed pitcher Keston Flener made his third start on the pitching mound for the Bears this season.  Through 4 innings, the bats of Shelby County stayed relatively quiet, only scoring 1 run.  However, adjusting to the wood bats proved to be tough for the Bears as well, with only two team hits coming from Seniors Elijah Flener and Keston Flener.  After the 4th inning of play, the Rockets began to warm up to the wood bats and scored 6 runs over the next 2 innings leading them to a 7-0 victory.  Sophomore right-handed pitcher Hunter Wilson came in for the Bears to pitch the 6th and final at-bat for the Rockets, giving up 2 runs off of 1 hit.

Bears coach Kevin Winn said, “Even though we lost, I liked the way we competed.  Shelby is a very talented team and just out played us today.” 

Butler County Looked to rebound in their second game of the tournament facing off against the Vikings of Rowan County.  Rowan came into the contest with a record of 2-7.  The Bears were able to add another number to the Viking’s loss column after collecting a 4-2 victory.  The contest was a total team effort with playing appearances by 11 different Bears.  Caleb Hunt pitched a complete-game gem on the mound for BCHS.  Hunt struck out 13 Vikings batters in his 7 innings and only allowed 4 hits.  Hunt’s 45 strikeouts on the season are the most on the Bears pitching staff.  The BCHS bats also performed well in the second game of the doubleheader, exploding for 10 hits.  Hunt, Elijah Flener, and Blake Graham each collected 2 hits on the day, with a double and RBI from Flener. Total, 7 Bears hitters were successful in collecting a hit. 

“I was so proud how we came out and competed immediately after a loss,” said Winn.  It was a great team win, with contributions from everyone.  I really liked the way we adjusted to the wood bats this game.”  With the victory, BCHS would go on to ply Nelson County in the battle for third place in the 6 team tournament on Saturday.

Saturday the Bears traveled back to the Shelby County Baseball Complex to battle against Nelson County.  Nelson came into the game with a record of 10-3 out of the 5th region.  BCHS came out battling, pushing a run across in the first inning of play.  Blake Graham was the pitcher for the Bears, making his 3rd start of the season.  Graham allowed only 1 earned run in 5 and 2/3 innings of work; however, 4 unearned runs off of 4 BCHS errors crossed the plate for Nelson County.  In the second day of the wood bat classic, the BCHS bats seem to go cold once again.  After a double in the first inning from Senior Carrington Harpe, the Bears were quiet at the plate the rest of the day.  Harpe’s double proved to be the only hit on the day for the Bears. 

“We didn’t hit well, or play defense well today.  Despite that, we still had a chance to win this game. Nelson was another good team we faced and that will only make us better down the road. I thought we pitched very well the whole weekend, we just have to become more consistent at the plate” said Winn. 

The Bears dropped the game with a score of 5-1.