Bearcat baseball improved to 2-2 on Monday, Feb. 20, beating Murray County at home 12-2 in six innings. While Bainbridge looked tough, Murray County was lacking enough talent for the game to be close. The Bearcats rolled over Murray with ease.

As the game started, Clark Wiggins stepped onto the mound to start the game for the Bearcats. Wiggins got the Bearcats to two outs in the first quickly, but then the train started coming off the track.

A set of walks in the first led to runners in scoring positions for the Murray County Indians. Wiggins then gave up a single that scored one and left another on third and another on second. On the next at bat, Wiggins walks in another runner; giving Murray their only two runs of the game.

Murray then flied out, and got Bainbridge out of the inning. Once the Bearcats got their feet under them, the momentum began to shift.

“I had to change up my strides, I was off a little bit,” said Wiggins. “I really just had to calm down, I had to let my defense work.”

Once Bainbridge got up to bat in the bottom of the first, they put their foot down. A single by Carson Inlow, an error on Keith Lyle’s hit, and a walk loaded the bases for Bainbridge on the first three batters.

The Indian’s backs were against a wall at that point and they weren’t able to get away in the first. Walks and errors piled up for Murray and the runs just kept coming home for Bainbridge. For seven straight runs, every batter up turned into a score. If they were walked or got a hit someone was coming home. Murray wasn’t able to get an out until the 12th batter of the series, but after getting the first out they picked up two more on the next two batters, sending the game into the second inning.

The top of the second was a different story from the top of the first; Wiggins had settled in and the Bearcats only needed five batters before they had three outs and we’re back up to the plate.

The bottom of the second started similar to the bottom of the first. Noah Bryant hit a single then the next two batters were walked to load the bases after three batters. Griffin Long hit a fly that scored Bryant, and next at bat Dalton Harrell bunted to bring in Conner Strickland. The inning ended without another score.

Bainbridge was winning 10-2 going into the top of the third.

The Bainbridge then hit a plateau in the third; keeping Murray off the scoreboard and being unable to get another run themselves.

The Bearcats scored their next run on a sacrifice fly by Wiggins in the fourth, which scored Long. Bainbridge was now up 11-2.

At the top of the fifth Bainbridge made a pitching change. Sophomore Connor Sconyers came into the game for Wiggins. Sconyers kept the pace and kept Murray off the scoreboard and struck out two of the six batters he faced.

At the top of the sixth, Bainbridge made another pitching change. Walt Burrell was now on the mound for the Bearcats.

Burrell made short work of the three batters he faced, striking out two. The third out came off of a pop fly caught by Inlow.

In the bottom of the sixth, Bainbridge finally was able to score the elusive 12th run, which ended the game by the 10 run rule. The final run came on via a single by Inlow, which scored Caleb Boutwell to end the game early.

Although the score was still lop-sided, it could have been worse. The Bearcats slowed down significantly after their eight run first inning.

“Their little pitcher they brought in was dealing a little bit,” said head coach Brian McCorkle, “but we took our foot off the gas, and we’ll have to fix that our next practice because you can’t let good teams up off the mat, that’s how you get beat.”

The big win is a big confidence booster after their 15-6 loss on Friday, Feb. 17 loss to Chatahoochee. Bainbridge captured the lead in the first inning against Charahoochee, but then fell apart in the sixth inning.