LONDON — South Laurel ran its win streak against crosstown rival North Laurel to two in a row while having won four of the last five meetings after defeating the Jaguars, 6-4, on Thursday.
Both teams scored early with the Cardinals holding a 4-3 edge after two innings, and they managed to push across two insurance runs in the sixth inning to secure the win.
North Laurel (8-3) attempted to put a rally together in the bottom of the seventh, but only scored one run.
“I’ll be honest, I really like the way we are hitting right now,” South Laurel coach Trey Smith said. “We’ve faced some good pitchers so far, and I feel like our top of the lineup is setting the table for us to score runs.
“I was proud of us being aggressive on the bases tonight, especially in the sixth inning,” he added. “We’ve been doing a good job running the bases, and making action happen. I feel like in that inning that we did a good job of pressing it, and it led to a couple of runs being scored.”
Cole Harville notched the win for South Laurel, tossing six innings while scattering five hits, and allowing only one earned run. He also struck out five batters. Keaton Creech got the save, allowing two hits and one earned run in one inning of work.
“Cole has been a big arm for us for theee years now,” Smith said. “He’s someone that I trust to get it done, and he did a great job tonight.”
The Cardinals’ top of the order dominated at the plate as their one through five hitters combined to go 9-for-16 with five RBI, four runs scored, and three walks.
Ayden Smith led the way with two hits, three RBI, and one run scored while Will Alsip had two hits, two RBI, and one run scored. Harville connected with two hits along with Ashton Garland, who also scored twice in the win. Alex Collett, and Waylon Hensley each finished with a hit apiece while Hunter Bundy scored twice and delivered a hit. Tyler Curry also drove in a run.
EJ Allen led the Jaguars (5-3) with two hits, and an RBI while Walt Herald had two hits, and RBI, and a run scored. Noah Rush delivered a run-scoring hit while Kyler Elza, and Andrew Cupp each had a hit apiece. Cupp also scored a run.
Keen took the loss on the mound, tossing two innings while allowing six hits, and four earned runs. He also struck out two batters. Corey Broughton pitched the final five innings, giving up only two hits, no runs while striking out five batters.
