CACC takes series with Southern Union

By Dusty Harper (Contact) | Alex City Outlook

Published Monday, March 8, 2010

Daniel Cayton stepped up to the plate Friday in every baseball player’s dream situation – and he delivered.

With Central Alabama trailing Southern Union with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, Cayton hammered a 3-2 pitch over the left field wall to give the Trojans a thrilling 11-8 victory in the first Alabama Community College Conference game of the season.

“It feels really good,” said Cayton, a sophomore from Montgomery. “Coach (Wynn) Fletcher helped me make an adjustment with my hands, and I’ve been getting the bat through the zone quicker. We knew what (Southern Union) was coming with. They were throwing a lot of off-speed stuff and breaking balls away. I saw the ball well all day and was able to get a pitch and drive it.”

Cayton, who batted ninth in the order, hit two home runs, singled and walked on the afternoon. He was hitting .167 entering the day.

Southern Union, which scored four runs in the top of the first inning, fell behind 6-5 in the eighth when Shane Lewis hit a groundball that was mishandled, allowing Rodney Tolbert to score. Tolbert was running for Brad Bonds, who got on with a pinch-hit single.

But, with their backs to the wall, the Bison took the lead back in the top of the ninth. Drew Cofield singled with the bases loaded and two outs to tie things up, and Eddie Tamarez followed that with a two-run hit to make the score 8-6.

After CACC’s Jordan McCoy entered the game on the mound and got the third out of the ninth, Cameron Carlisle walked, Matt Parker was hit by a pitch and David Kendrick reached on a throwing error to load the bases for the Trojans with one out. Following a strikeout, Matt Frank hit a grounder that was booted, which let Carlisle touch home. Cayton then finished things off with the walk-off home run, which propelled the Trojans to their eighth straight win.

“If you’re going to have a chance to go far in a season, you have to have get a win like that sometimes,” Fletcher said. “You have to give them credit. They came out and jumped on us early, but we popped it pretty good to get back in it in the first inning. After that, they completely shut us down for most of the game. I was disappointed in our hitting approach for about six innings, but we never quit and we never got down. It was a fun game to watch, especially for that one pitch.”

Southern Union’s Jared Reaves, Chad Grant and Tanner Bryant all had hits in the opening inning off of CACC starter Wes Cook to help the Bison to a 4-0 lead.

CACC answered with back-to-back doubles by Lewis and Brennan Olive to get one run back, and the Trojans picked up their second run of the first on a Carlisle single.

Cook and Southern Union starter Chase Horn settled down after that, as neither got into trouble again until the fourth. Cook surrendered a solo shot to Tanner Drennan in the top half of the inning, but Frank singled and scored on a throwing error and Cayton came in on a sac fly by Olive in the bottom half to make the score 5-4.

Cayton tied the game with his first home run in the bottom half of the sixth.

Horn lasted six innings for Southern Union, giving up three earned runs on eight hits. Cook pitched eight innings for CACC, before he was lifted after issuing a lead-off walk in the ninth inning. Nathan Brown retired one batter, and he was taken out for Will Ruffin, who the Bison touched up for three hits in a third of an inning. McCoy got the win, and Zachary John took the loss. He faced the final four batters of the game in relief of Cory Belyeu, who tossed 2.1 innings.

Teams split on Saturday

The Central Alabama baseball team got a run in the bottom of the 13th inning to beat Southern Union 3-2 in game one on Saturday.

David Kendrick pitched 10.2 innings, allowing just four hits, and Will Ruffin closed out the final 2.1 innings to get the win.

Shane Lewis and Cameron Carlisle had two hits apiece, and Drake Sasser finished with a hit and two RBIs.

CACC lost game two 8-4, but still won the series, thanks to Friday’s walk-off win. The lost snapped a nine-game winning streak for the Trojans (11-3, 2-1).

Eight players had one hit in the loss, including Brennan Olive, who had the only extra-base hit.

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