You could say the Livingston Central Cardinals almost ‘walked’ away with the district win on Senior Night for the Trigg County Wildcats. Trigg pitching gave up 20 walks in the game, including five in the top of the seventh as the Cardinals rallied to take an 11-9 lead at the Trigg County Recreation Complex.
Despite the multitude of freebies, the Wildcats found the way to come back in the bottom of the seventh to take a 12-11 win in a wild contest.
With runners on first and second with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, a Livingston Central error, the Cardinals’ 8th of the night left the door open for the Wildcats and they walked on through. The error allowed Trigg to trim the lead to 11-9. A single from Noah Hawkins made it 11-11. Carson Kline then ended the long night with a walk-off single to give the Wildcats the one-run win.
In an indicator of things to come, early pitching struggles for Trigg County allowed Livingston Central to score three in the first, one in the second, and one more in the top of the third to take a 5-0 lead.
The Wildcats got two of the runs back in the bottom of the 4th on a groundout and a Livingston Central error.
The Cardinals looked to have the game put away with three runs in the top of the fifth. All three runs were scored on bases-loaded walks given up by the Trigg County pitching staff as the lead moved out to 8-2.
The Wildcats then got refocused and started the comeback path for the first time in the bottom half of the inning. A Cardinal error and an RBI single from Cannon Scott made it an 8-4 game. Carson Kline singled later in the inning to drive in another run and the Livingston lead was down to 8-5. Jon Humphries added an RBI single to close out the inning at 8-6.
A triple, a double, and a Livingston Central error on consecutive at-bats scored three more for Trigg County as the Wildcats moved ahead 9-8 in the bottom of the sixth.
Back-to-back-to-back walks to open the top of the seventh and Livingston Central had something going. The fourth walk of the inning, coming with one out, tied the game up at 9-9. A hit-batter later and the Cardinals were back in front 10-9. Yet another walk, and the lead was out to 11-9.
Noah Hawkins came into pitch for Trigg County at that point and got a strikeout and a fly out to finally end the rally and the inning, setting the stage for one last comeback in the game.
In addition to the game winner, Carson Cline was 4-5 with two RBIs. Cannon Scott with a big night for Trigg, going 3-5 with two RBIs and a run scored. Brody Calhoun, Ty Gootee, and Bentley Reynolds finished with two hits each
Noah Hawkins got the win in relief, pitching the final two-thirds of an inning in the top of the seventh.
