Butler County Baseball: Bears win 3 of 4 games in week 2

Tue, 03/26/2013 - 10:37pm — Diane Dyer

The Bears had a very busy week, playing 4 games in week 2 of the baseball season. Despite cool weather, the Bears were hot, winning 3 of the 4 games they played. The victories came over Whitesville Trinity, Todd County, and Breckinridge County. Their only loss was to Russellville.

The Bears traveled to Whitesville on Tuesday night to open up in their first district game of the season. Junior lefty pitcher Caleb Hunt looked to continue his solid pitching with the start on the mound. Hunt did just that, striking out 14 batters and only allowing 3 hits in a complete game shutout. Hunt also maintained pinpoint accuracy over his 7 innings of work and did not walk a single batter. The Bears offense came to life and pushed across 6 runs with 11 hits by 7 different batters. Carrington Harpe, Trevor Parker, and Clark Parker all had multiple hits on the day, with Clark Parker picking up 3 singles. Coach Kevin Winn was proud of the way his team opened up district play: “I really liked the way we came out and competed despite the cool temperatures. Caleb threw great on the mound. Any time your pitcher gives that type of performance, he is giving the team a great chance of winning.”

	R	H	E
Whitesville	0	3	3
BCHS	6	11	2

On Thursday night the Bears made the trip to Todd County to take on the Rebels for the second and final time of the 2013 season. In the first matchup, BCHS took the victory 13-3. Eighth grade pitcher Ty Burden made his first start of the season. After 2 slow innings offensively for BCHS, Todd County jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. Eventually, the Bear’s bats began to warm up and climbed ahead 4-3. After the third inning, Blake Graham replaced Burden on the pitchers mound. Graham shut down the Rebels over the next 4 innings holding them at 3 runs. Senior shortstop Keston Flener broke the game wide open with his 2 run double later in the game. Elijah Flener added to the run total also driving in a run. Elijah Flener led the Bears at the plate on the night picking up 4 of their 13 hits. Along with his solid performance on the mound, Graham also recorded 2 hits on the night for himself. The Bears cruised into an easy 9-3 victory after 7 innings of play.

	R	H	E
Todd County	3	5	3
BCHS	9	13	1

On Friday night BCHS came back home to host the Russellville Panthers in the two teams only scheduled game of the season. Friday night proved to be all Panthers, as the Bears were no hit in the 12-0 loss. BCHS threw 3 pitchers in the 5-inning mercy rule shortened game. Keston Flener was the starting pitcher and threw 3 innings, while Elijah Flener and Brandon Jones both saw an inning of work. Errors haunted the Bears defensively as they gave up 5 during the course of the game. “We played poorly all around and didn’t give ourselves a chance to win in any area of the game,” said Coach Winn. “We had a long talk after the game and decided we were going to start doing the little things right and come out with more energy the next day against Breckinridge County.”

	R	H	E
Russellville	12	10	0
BCHS	0	0	5

Butler County was looking for redemption on Saturday as they faced Breckinridge County in a Varsity/JV double header at home. The tough loss from the night before seemed to have escaped the Bears minds and they came out ready to play, going neck-and neck with Breckenridge for 7 innings. Blake Graham started pitching for the Bears and picked up right where he left off against Todd County. Graham struck out 5 and only gave up 4 hits over his 5 innings of work, but allowed to runs to cross the plate. After being down 2-0, the Bears came roaring back to tie it up 2-2. Junior pitcher Caleb Hunt came in to pitch the final two innings for BCHS and completely shut the offense down for Breckenridge, not allowing any runs to score. With 2 outs in the bottom of the second with runners at first and second, Sophomore outfielder Hunter Wilson came up big with and RBI single to allow Elijah Flener to slide into home for the walk-off victory. Wilson, along with Carrington Harpe and Brandon Jones, had 2 hits on the day. Coach Winn was extremely happy with how the team rebounded after the tough loss the night before: “I told them after the game that good teams find a way to win. We did just that today; we found a way to win. I appreciated all of the hard work and hustle out of everyone. It was truly a team win.”

	R	H	E
Breckinridge	2	9	0
BCHS	3	7	2

The Bears JV team also moved to 4-0 on the season, picking up wins against Whitesville and Breckenridge County during the week. BCHS’s JV squad has run-ruled 3 of the 4 teams they have played so far.

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