Bears Pick up Big District Win, Finish Week 1-2

Sun, 04/27/2014 - 10:43am — Diane Dyer

The Butler County Bears Baseball team went into the game Tuesday night on a 5 game losing streak. This trip was the third straight year in which the Bears have had the opportunity to play at Bowling Green Ballpark, home of the Bowling Green Hot Rods. The excitement was even greater knowing that this time, they were playing a huge district game against the Edmonson County Wildcats.

The game proved to be a pitching duel between Butler County’s Blake Graham and Edmonson County’s Hunter Houchens. Graham held Edmonson County hit less until the 5th inning in which the Wildcats finally broke through with two hits on their way to a 1-0 lead. Edmonson held on to that lead until the bottom of the 6th inning when Trevor Parker delivered a key base hit up the middle to tie the game at 1. The Bears made a pitching change in the top of the 7th inning and Caleb Hunt continued the dominant pitching for the Bears throwing 3 scoreless innings as the game went into extra innings. Rex Henderson led off the bottom of the 8th inning against Edmonson County’s hard throwing Alex Basil, with a rocket line drive to the left center gap that went all the way to the fence for a stand up double. Cody Casteel then laid down a bunt to the first basemen who attempted to throw Henderson out at third but Henderson was safe. After a walk to Blake Graham to load the bases, Caleb Hunt hit a ground ball to the shortstop, however the throw to the plate was not in time to get Henderson and the Bears picked up the victory of the Wildcats, 2-1! The win improved the Bears district record to 3-1, guaranteeing them at least the #2 seed in the district tournament and it also keeps them in the race for the regular season district championship with the Grayson County Cougars.

R H E

Edmonson 1 2 0

Butler 2 6 0

WP: Hunt

In other games this week, the Bears traveled to Russellville on Thursday to play the Panthers as part of a tournament. The Bears beat the Panthers earlier in the season but it was not to be this time. Caleb Hunt led the Bears with 2 hits but the Bears faced one of the better pitchers in the area in Zack Denny and they fell to the Panthers 9-4.

R H E

Butler 4 6 3

Russellviille 9 12 0

LP: Casteel

On Friday, the Bears traveled back to Russellville for a match up against University Heights. The Bears bats were much better than they have been in several games as they swung the bat for 8 hits (Blake Graham, Trevor Parker and Brandon Jones each had 2 hits) but they only managed to get 2 runs in the process. The Bears defense once again had three key errors that resulted in UHA scores and the pitching staff gave up 8 walks in addition to 9 hits. All of this was too much to overcome and the Bears fell to UHA 12-2 in 6 innings.

R H E
UHA 12 9 2

Butler 2 8 3

LP: T. Parker

The Bears currently have a 9-14 record for the season. The Bears have five games scheduled for next week including another big district game on Wednesday at Grayson County.