The Tullahoma Wildcats enjoyed their best offensive night of the season, banging out 15 hits, including their first home run, and earned a split in the two-game series with Shelbyville, beating the Golden Eagles 11-5 Tuesday night at Grider Stadium. Shelbyville beat the Cats 6-0 on Monday in Bedford County.
Tullahoma (12-11) will travel to powerful Lincoln County (22-7) for a non-district tilt on Thursday, then return to District 12-3A action Monday, hosting Franklin County at 6 pm on 93.9 The Duck.
Shelbyville (20-6) pitcher Caleb Mailett was lights-out on Monday at Shelbyville’s new artificial turf facility, allowing only five hits and shutting out the Wildcat offense. Ben Quick pitched five innings, allowing only three hits and one run. However, the Eagles jumped on Wildcat reliever Xander Pogue for five runs in the sixth.
Tuesday was a completely different story. Four of Tullahoma’s first five batters had hits, and the other reached on an error as the Cats plated four runs in the first inning. Addien Evans led off with a double, Nate Wilkerson singled, Parke Fulks doubled, and Phillip Lemmon and Quick singled. With two outs, Price Harden walked, and Brysen Campbell singled. Evans, Wilkerson, Fulkes, and pinch-runner Elijah Austell all scored, staking Wildcat starter Lukas Taylor to a 4-0 lead.
Taylor didn’t have his best stuff on the mound, but pitched around trouble almost every inning. The Eagles had two first-inning singles, but both runners were stranded on the base paths. Taylor hit a batter and issued a walk in the second, but again, the Golden Eagles couldn’t push a run across.
They finally scored one in the third inning with a walk, a single, and a double. But again, Taylor got out of the inning by inducing two ground balls and recording a strikeout. He allowed five hits, two walks, and struck out seven, including three strikeouts in the fifth.
Tullahoma scored five runs in the third inning to pull ahead 9-2. JD Schmisseur, Harden, and Campbell all singled. Evans walked, and Wilkerson singled, driving in two. Lemmon drove in the final two with a two-out single. Schmisseur completed Tullahoma’s scoring in the sixth inning, blasting a two-out, two-run home run to left-center field.
With the Wildcats leading by seven, reliever Beaux Saunders pitched the sixth inning and allowed one run. Schmisseur pitched the final inning for Tullahoma.
Franklin County (4-2, 12-9) is tied with Tullahoma for second place in the district. The Rebels split their series with district leader Lawrence County (5-1, 18-6) and also lost to Giles County.
Author: C. Scott Shasteen
