A pair of miscues broke a 6th-inning tie and ended the Lyon County Lyons’ three-game win streak with a 6-5 loss to hosts Marshall County on Saturday in the Big Orange Classic.
The Lyons slipped to 3-2 with their first defeat since an opening-night loss to Calloway County. After topping the Lyons, the Marshals knocked off Caldwell County in the nightcap to improve to 4-3.
Lyon County pushed a run across in the top of the 1st when Austin Spears scored on a passed ball. But the Marshals loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the frame and led 2-1 after Alex Staples’ RBI single.
Marshall stretched the advantage to 4-1 in the 2nd on Ethan Landis’ RBI single and a run on a passed ball. However, John Bingham’s first home run of the season, a two-run shot to left field, cut the margin to a run after three innings. The Lyons tied the game at 4-4 in their next at-bat when Spears came home on a wild pitch.
Peyton Williams started on the mound for the Lyons and went two innings, allowing four runs, one earned, on three hits with a pair of walks and four strikeouts.
Spears came on in relief and held the Marshals to two hits with a walk and a hit by pitch over three scoreless innings, but he ran into trouble after a walk to open the bottom of the 6th. Back-to-back errors allowed two runs to come home to put the Marshals up 6-4 with the Lyons down to their last at-bat.
Turner Hurst’s RBI double pulled the Lyons to within one, but a strikeout and a ground out ended the game with the tying run in scoring position.
Carter McKinney went the distance to earn the win for the Marshals, surrendering five runs, one earned, on eight hits with three walks and eight strikeouts.
Lyon County will host Livingston Central on Monday looking to run their 5th-District record to 2-0. The Lyons have won the last seven meetings in the series by a combined score of 106-8.
