After starting the season with a couple of defeats, the Hopkinsville Tigers got in the win column on Thursday with a 6-3 win over visiting Franklin-Simpson.
The Tigers built an early lead and overcame three errors to hand the Wildcats their second loss of the season. Hopkinsville faces another stiff test on Saturday when unbeaten Paducah Tilghman comes to town.
The Tigers struck in the bottom of the 1st after Preston Chaudoin doubled and then scored from 2nd on Tim Cansler’s bloop single to right.
With two on in the top of the 2nd, Chase Wilson reached on an infield single to bring home Justin Jones and tie the game for Franklin-Simpson.
A three-run 2nd put Hopkinsville in control. With two out and two on, Zach Moss and Chaudoin provided back-to-back RBI singles for a 4-1 advantage.
Chaudoin started on the mound for the Tigers, and after allowing four hits and a run over the first two frames, he retired six straight batters over the next two innings. However, after striking out the side in the 4th, Chaudoin ran into some trouble in the 5th.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Chaudoin’s pickoff attempt at 2nd went into center field to allow a run to score. Franklin-Simpson trimmed the lead to 4-3 on an error, but the Tigers got out of the inning on the same play when a runner was thrown out at 3rd.
Some sloppy play by Franklin-Simpson allowed Hoptown to put the game away in the bottom of the 6th. After Kaden West and Moss drew walks and West stole 3rd, a wild pitch allowed him to score. Moss advanced to 2nd on the same pitch before taking 3rd on an error and coming home on a second error.
Moss relieved Chaudoin in the 6th before Jacob Dilday came on in the 7th. Things got a little interesting after a single and consecutive walks loaded the bases, but Dilday struck out the final Wildcat batter to end the game.
Chaudoin went five innings, allowing three runs, one earned, on four hits with four walks and nine strikeouts.
Ben Banton took the loss for Franklin-Simpson, lasting six innings and yielding four earned runs on six hits with four walks and 11 strikeouts.
Chaudoin had a pair of hits and an RBI, Moss drove in two, Cansler hit safely once and brought in a run, and Dilday and Joseph Boor each had a hit.
