Big Sandy baseball kicked off district play at home against the West Hardin Oilers Tuesday night, taking a 4-3 win in come-from-behind fashion.
Wyatt Lenox, Big Sandy’s starting pitcher, labored in the top of the first inning. With runners on second and third, the Oiler shortstop hit a double down the left-field line, putting the Wildcats in a 2-0 hole.
Big Sandy got a run back in the bottom of the inning, when Zack McGallion scored on a sacrifice grounder to second by Jasper Hardy. West Hardin scored again in the second inning on a passed ball, giving them a 3-1 lead.
The score remained 3-1 until the bottom of the fifth. Big Sandy had runners on first and second with one out, when Hardy hit a ground ball to the Oiler shortstop, beginning what should’ve been a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.
Instead, a throwing error by the second baseman allowed McGallion to score from second base, cutting West Hardin’s lead to 3-2. Big Sandy tied the game, 3-3, in the sixth inning when McGallion hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Daniel Barker from third base.
In the top of the seventh, Big Sandy’s relief pitcher, Corbin Cude, shut down the Oilers, striking out the side. In the bottom of the inning with one out, Hardy was hit by a pitch, putting the winning run on first base for the Wildcats. Next up to bat was Cude. He struggled at the plate in his first two at bats, but with a 1-0 count, he hit a missile deep into the right-center gap, scoring Hardy all the way from first base, giving the Wildcats a 4-3 win.
Big Sandy’s starting pitcher, Lenox, fought through two innings, allowing three runs on three hits, a walk, and four strikeouts. Cude was fantastic in relief for the Wildcats, pitching five innings, allowing only one hit, no runs, no walks, while striking out nine.
“I told him I needed him to keep us in it, and he went out there and gave us five scoreless innings,” Big Sandy coach Kasey Glover said of Cude’s outing. “It was an unbelievable performance.”
Barker went 1-for-3 with a run and a stolen base. McGallion was hit by a pitch twice, scored two runs, had an RBI and a walk. Cude went 1-for-4 with a triple and an RBI. The Wildcats try for the series sweep in Saratoga Friday afternoon.
