Maybe it took Henderson County pitcher Dru Meadows a while to get good and loose after the bus ride from Henderson to Elkton Thursday evening. Or maybe, it took the Rebels roughing him up a bit in the bottom of the first inning to get focused in. Whatever the case, once Meadows got going, he controlled the remainder of the game.
After giving up two runs and two hits to Todd County Central in the bottom of the first, Meadows scattered four hits over the final six innings and blanked the Rebels the rest of the way as Henderson County took a 9-2 win.
Henderson County was a last-minute replacement for the game after Kenwood High School notified the Todd Central coaching staff late Wednesday night they would not be able to make the trip to Elkton.
The Rebels were also missing a chunk of the starting lineup in the game. Seniors Jase Paul Hampton and Jacob Brandon were both in street clothes in the dugout. Hampton is out with an arm injury, while Brandon is out with a leg injury.
Early on it looked as if the Rebels might send Meadows packing early. Preston Rager and Nate Reding led off the bottom of the first with back-to-back singles. Both would then score on separate groundouts to put the Rebels up 2-0. But from that point on, Todd Central could find no answer for Dru Meadows.
The Rebels were also their own worst enemy in the field, committing six errors in the game. Two errors in the top of the third opened the door for the Colonels to take a 3-2 lead. Henderson then put the game away in the top of the fifth with four straight two-out hits, two singles, followed by two doubles, as the lead grew to 7-2.
Henderson added single runs in the top of the sixth and the top of the seventh.
After his rough start, Henderson’s Dru Meadows ended up allowing the Rebels just the two runs for the game, on six hits. He struck out 12 while walking only one.
For the Rebels, Preston Rager finished 2-4 at the plate with a run scored. Nate Reding, Devin Schutt, Peyton Ortiz, and Zack Robinson had one hit each for Todd Central.
On the mound, Zack Robinson was tagged with the loss. Robinson was charged with all nine runs, but only two of those runs were earned. He struck out six and walked one.
The loss drops the Rebels to 8-10 on the year.
