Mark Butts was known (and still called) by the nickname ‘Booty’ when he played baseball for Trigg County in the early 1990s.
Two sons later, the same nickname has stuck with Trigg County senior Aidon Butts, who had himself a night on Thursday.
Aidon pitched a no-hitter and missed hitting for the cycle by seven feet as the Wildcats beat Livingston Central 10-0.
Butts doubled, tripled, and had an infield single in his first three at bats. Needing a home run in his final at bat, Butts led off the sixth inning with a deep double to left center that one-hopped the fence.
On the mound, Butts struck out 13 Cardinals and allowed only two baserunners – both on errors by Wildcat infielders. He fanned the final eight batters he faced, needing just 81 pitches in lowering his season ERA to 0.42.
His no-hitter is the first of five or more innings by a Trigg County pitcher since Tyler Allen no-hit Fort Campbell in 2013.
Trigg County struck for four runs in the opening inning. Butts tripled home a run, and the Wildcats added three more on a Livingston error, sacrifice fly, and wild pitch.
Trigg scored two more runs in the third inning. Slaton Carter’s second sac fly drove in a run, and James Garnett doubled home two runs with a line shot down the left field line.
Up 9-0 in the sixth inning, Butts doubled, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a walk-off single by Chase Hampton, who had two hits and two RBI.
AJ Bell added two hits, and Aaden Allen scored three runs for the Wildcats, who improved to 10-8 and find themselves two games over .500 in May for the first time since Trigg’s last district champion team in 2018.
Trigg County is 4-1 in the district and will play at Lyon County on Saturday. The Lyons are 5-0 and can wrap up the top seed in the district tourney with a win. A Trigg County win means a tie-breaker would be needed to determine the top seed.
Crittenden County (2-3) will be the three seed, and Livingston Central (0-7) will be the four seed for the 5th District Tournament that begins the week of May 19 at Lyon County High School.
Trigg County will host Madisonville on Friday ahead of Saturday’s game at Lyon County.
Livingston Central (8-17) will play at Union County on Friday.
