Brinley Vandiver entered Thursday’s game in relief of two Tri-County pitchers.
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The Bosworth/Hale Bulldogs may have dominated the first half of Thursday’s baseball season opener, but it was the Tri-County/Gallatin Mustangs who had the last word. A long game, nearly 3½ hours, ended with a Mustang victory that also ended a long winless streak in the program’s short history.
The Mustangs, rallying from a 9-2 deficit, scored 22 runs in the final 4 innings to carve out a slice of Tri-County sports history on Thursday. Tri-County’s 24-14, 6-inning victory was not just the first promise of more to come this season, it was the first victory in the program’s history that dates back to the 2017 fall season.
Bosworth jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning but Tri-County tallied 2 runs in the bottom of the frame. Ross Critten drew a lead-off walk. Drayton Harris rifled a line-drive double to center field to score Critten. Harris would later score on Morgan McBroom’s ground out.
A grand slam home run by Caleb Eddins, on the heels of 3 straight walks, lifted the Bulldogs to a 7-2 lead in the second inning. Bosworth added 2 more runs in the third. On the mound, Eddins failed to battle through control problems in the bottom of the inning.
Harris doubled and the Bulldog hurler issued 3 straight walks to McBroom, Gage Wright and Nathan Baker. Nathaniel Tomlinson’s single found the gap between third and shortstop, scoring McBroom. A walk to Brinley Vandiver scored Wright. Walks to Critten and Harris brought in 2 more runs. To the plate for the second time, McBroom roped a 2-out, 2-run double to push the Mustang lead to 15-9.
Aided by fielding and throwing errors, the Bulldogs narrowed their deficit to 15-14 in their half of the fifth inning, but the Mustangs roared back with a 3-run frame highlighted by JJ Waters’s rbi-single and Harris’s 2-run single.
A 6-run, bottom of the sixth inning ended the contest with a walk to Nathan Baker that scored Harris with the deciding run.
Johnny Cosper pitched the first inning for the Mustangs, followed by Colton Rouner. Vandiver worked 2 middle innings and received the win. Wright earned a save by striking out 4 Bulldogs in 1.2 shutout innings.
Harris led the Mustangs at the plate with a single, 3 doubles, 4 runs batted in and 4 runs scored. McBroom singled, doubled, drove in a pair of runs and scored 4 times. Baker singled twice, stole 4 bases and scored 3 runs. Critten walked 6 times and scored 4 runs. Klayton Lynch singled, doubled, stole a base, scored a run and drove in a run. Waters, Rouner and Tomlinson each singled with at least one rbi and run scored.