The Alexander City Outlook

Hornets rip Dadeville, Tallassee tops Cougars

A day after Dadeville’s offense came alive just in time to win its first two games of the Lake Martin Classic, the Tigers were no-hit by Beauregard’s Nathan Edwards in an 11-1 loss to the No. 7 Hornets at Central Alabama.

Cameron Carleton reached on an error to lead off the second for the Tigers, but Edwards sat down the 12 batters in order. Carleton stole second and later scored on a groundball by Jacob Tidwell, though the lead was short-lived.

Following a Tiger error, Beauregard strung together four straight hits to get on the board. Chandler Guy’s single scored one run, Cory Thompson’s double brought home two more and a Zane Rivers sac fly made it 4-1 .

The score stayed that way until the fifth, when the Hornets put the game out of reach with seven runs. Rivers roped a two-run single, Chad Kelley had an RBI double, Taylor Ragsdale added another two-run single and Guy plated a run with his second hit of the inning to help Beauregard pour it on.

Tiger starter Kyle Caldwell lasted 4.1 innings and took the loss. Multiple errors by his defense didn’t help his cause. Chris Waldrep recorded the final two outs for Dadeville (10-11).

The Tigers wrap up today at 4:15 p.m. against Westbrook at CACC.

Coosa falls to Tallassee

The Central-Coosa Cougars jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first on Tuesday against Tallassee at the Sportplex, but the Tigers used two five-run innings to pull away for a 14-4 victory.

Cougar head coach Shundell Russaw said the scores are not indicative of how close the games have been.

“In years past, these larger schools would smoke us from the start,” Russaw said. “But now, we’re competing. The game against Gadsden was close until the last inning, and we were in the ball game (yesterday) until we let things get away from us. It’s just one inning here and there that is killing us.”

The Cougars trailed Gadsden City on Monday 8-4 entering the last inning, but the Titans scored eight runs to end any chance of an upset.

On Tuesday, Shane Payton was 2-for-3 with a double and RBI for the Cougars. Cameron Taylor, Tommy Tinney and Levi Wilson also had hits.

“We’re in the process of turning things around in Coosa County,” Russaw said. “These kids don’t have the little leagues and facilities that these other teams do, yet we’re starting to play better and understand what we’re doing. If we can eliminate the bad innings here and there and hit a little better from top to bottom, we can do some things in the area.”

The Cougars play at 6:30 p.m. today against Briarwood Christian at CACC.