The Caldwell County Tigers will carry the No. 1 seed into next week’s 7th District tournament at Hopkins County Central.
Caldwell wrapped up the top seed after holding off Madisonville-North Hopkins 11-9 on Monday in makeup action at Elmer Kelley Stadium at the Madisonville City Park.
The Tigers completed a 6-0 regular-season run through the district and improved to 24-6 overall.
Madisonville, which beat Caldwell 1-0 for the district championship last season, will be the No. 2 seed next week. The Maroons are 12-16 and 4-2.
Caldwell appeared to be breezing through Monday’s matchup when it built an 11-2 lead in the sixth inning.
However, Madisonville sent 13 batters to the plate in the bottom of the sixth and scored seven times to make things interesting late. Caldwell committed four errors in the frame. Madisonville also received two walks and had two hit batters.
The Maroons still had the bases loaded with two outs in the inning, but a ground ball to short finally ended the long inning.
Madisonville got a one-out single in the seventh inning to bring the potential tying run to the plate. However, Scott Cortner got a strikeout and a fly ball to left to finish off the Tiger win.
Cortner pitched a scoreless seven to earn the save.
Caldwell starter Channing Puckett (5-1) was the winner. He went the first five innings, allowing two earned runs on six base hits. Puckett struck out seven and walked one.
The Tigers never trailed after scoring three runs in the top of the first inning. A run in the third, two in the fourth and three in the fifth extended the margin to 9-0.
Madisonville got its first two runs in the bottom of the fifth, but Caldwell answered those runs in the sixth to go up 11-2.
The Tigers outhit the Maroons 12-9.
Luke Parker went 2-for-4 and knocked in a pair of runs. Collin Whittington was 2-for-5 and drove in two. Drew Stevens finished 2-for-3 with an RBI. Cole Slone was 2-for-4.
For Madisonville, Briar Gossett was 2-for-4 with a double, a home run and three runs batted in. Ryder Sandidge went 3-for-5 and Xzavier Martin was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.
Caldwell will finish the regular season on Thursday with a home date against Crittenden County.
Madisonville will play at home again on Tuesday against McLean County.
