Caldwell County is hoping a special regular season continues in the postseason.
Four Tiger pitchers combined to strike out 11 and allow just an unearned run on five base hits as Caldwell defeated Crittenden County 8-1 Thursday in the final game of the season at the VFW Ballpark in Princeton.
Caldwell will carry a 25-6 record into next week’s 7th District tournament. A district championship would give the 2024 Tigers the second-most wins in school history.
Caldwell’s regional championship team of 2016 holds the school record, going 31-6. Three other Tiger teams reached 26 wins.
Caldwell has won nine-straight games after the win over the Rockets. The 2016 team owns the school mark for longest winning streak at 13.
Cole Slone picked up the pitching win on Thursday, improving to 8-1. He is just the fourth Tiger to win that many games. Shane Burns did it twice, going 11-1 in 2016 and 8-2 in 2017. Ben Goodaker was 8-4 last season. Joe Villines was 8-1 in 1974.
A three-run third and a four-run fourth inning were the difference against Crittenden County (17-13).
Caldwell actually went up 1-0 in the second on Westin King’s RBI single to left.
In the third, the Tigers got a sacrifice fly to center from Ari Wells, an RBI double from Collin Whittington and a run-scoring groundout from Slone to make it 4-0.
In the fourth inning, Collin Whittington singled in a run and Slone had an RBI double to right. Another run scored on an error while another crossed the plate on a wild pitch. That pushed the margin to 8-0.
Crittenden broke up the shutout with an unearned tally in the sixth.
Collin Whittington went 2-for-3 offensively with two runs batted in and two runs scored.
Slone got relief help on the mound from Ari Wells, Scott Cortner and Daelyn Lander.
One other interesting note. The game was played with just one umpire. The second umpire that was scheduled to call the contest bowed out before the game because of an injury.
Caldwell has taken five straight from Crittenden and now leads the all-time series 85-24.
Caldwell’s next game will be Monday in the 7th District tournament at Hopkins County Central. The top-seeded Tigers will face Dawson Springs (2-16) in semifinal action at 5:30 Monday.
The district championship game will then be played on Tuesday.
