MENDENHALL– The Lawrence County Cougars swept a wild varsitybaseball doubleheader against Mendenhall Friday night. Thedoubleheader sweep completed the Cougars’ 3-game sweep ofMendenhall. LCHS defeated Mendenhall in Monticello on Tuesdaynight.

In Friday’s opener, Lawrence County watched an 8-run leadevaporate as Mendenhall tied the game at 16-16 in the bottom of theseventh. The Cougars responded with 10 runs in the eighth, however,to avoid the upset. LCHS won, 26-16, in one of the strangest gamesin Cougar baseball history.

“Very rarely will you score 16 runs and get sent into extrainnings,” said second-year Lawrence County coach Cory Keyes. “Truthis, we were fortunate to win it. They had the winning run at thirdin the bottom of the seventh.

“Obviously, our guys swung the bats very well,” Keyes continued,”and I’m proud of that. But we didn’t do anything else verywell.”

In the late game, the very late game in this case, Cougarstarter Trent Hartzog slowed down Mendenhall’s bats somewhat,pitching the Cougars to a 16-5, 5-inning win.

“Two Fridays in a row,” said long-time LCHS assistant CraigDavis, “we’ve gone on the road needing a doubleheader sweep. We’vegotten them, but it sure hasn’t been easy. It’s great to be 13-1,but we’ve obviously got to pitch, catch, and defend better than wedid tonight if we want to be considered a really good team, and ifwe want to have any shot at defending our divisionchampionship.”

With the win, Lawrence County improved to 13-1 overall, and 8-1in Division 6-4A play. Mendenhall, coached by Chad Leggett, fell to1-8 in the division. The Tigers won 1 of 3 against Florence, andhave been swept by both Brookhaven and Lawrence County.

Lawrence Co. 26, Mendenhall 16

In the wild first game, Lawrence County’s first 6 battersscored. After a leadoff walk to Joseph Evans, Tiger pitcher JordanToney surrendered 5 straight hits, the last being a 2-run homer offthe bat of Cougar first baseman Nick Jackson.

Any notions of an easy Cougar victory were dispelled in thebottom of the first, as Mendenhall responded with 4 runs. TheTigers got just 1 hit off Lawrence County starter Joseph Evans, butwere buoyed by a base on balls, a hit batsman, and 3 Cougarerrors.

Lawrence County scored 4 in the top of the third, 3 of them on along homerun by second baseman Jake Russell. LCHS again seemed tohave a comfortable lead, 10-4.

It wasn’t a safe lead. Mendenhall scored 2 in the bottom of thethird, cutting the lead to 10-6. In the fourth, Tiger first basemanMat Turner whacked a 2-run homer, cutting the margin to 10-8. MartyBallard relieved Evans in the fourth.

Lawrence County seemingly put the game away once and for all inthe top of the fifth, exploding for 6 runs on 5 hits. The Cougarsled 16-8.

Mendenhall scored once in the bottom of the fifth to make it a16-9 game. That’s when the action really started. Taking advantageof another Cougar error, 3 bases on balls, and a hit batsman,Mendenhall chased Ballard from the mound in the sixth.

Lawrence County’s Johnathan Stephens came to the mound to faceMendenhall’s Jarrid Hickman with the bases loaded and 2 out.Hickman, who at the time was 0-for-6 in the series, with 5strikeouts, promptly hammered Stephens’ second pitch to theright-center fence for a 3-run triple. When Toney singled homeHickman, Lawrence County’s lead was cut to 16-15. Trent Hartzogrelieved Stephens to get the final out.

After Lawrence County went quietly in the top of the seventh,Hartzog came out and struck out the first two Tiger hitters in thebottom of the seventh. Still, Mendenhall refused to go away. TheTigers’ eighth and ninth batters, J.J. Smith and Dante Skiffer,both singled to right. After a hit batsman loaded the bases, JakeRussell entered the game.

Russell was then called for a balk. Coach Keyes protestedvehemently, but the balk call tied the game at 16-16. Russell thenstruck out the Mendenhall batter with the potential winning run atthird base.

“To be honest, Jake was supposed to be off-limits (as a pitcher)tonight,” said assistant coach Craig Davis. “It was just such aweird, long game, we had to do what we had to do.

“He had blown away that hitter on Tuesday, and we felt like hecould do it again. He did, but, unfortunately, the balk plated thetying run.”

Undaunted, and happy to have survived the bottom of the seventh,the Cougars proceeded to bang out 10 runs on 8 hits in the top ofthe eighth, this time putting the game away for good, and closingout the scoring in what was by far the highest-scoring game inLawrence County High’s 19-year baseball history.

Mendenhall went quietly in the bottom of the eighth, withRussell picking up his fifth win of the season, along with 3saves.

Hartzog, Stephens, Ballard, Russell, and Taebyus Smith each had3 hits for Lawrence County. Evans, Jackson, and Woods each had 2.Zachary Summers added 1.

Jordan Toney, Kyle Neely, J.J. Smith, and Dante Skiffer ledMendenhall with 2 hits each.

Lawrence Co. 16, Mendenhall 5

The second game wasn’t nearly as dramatic, or long. LawrenceCounty scored 5 in the top of the first, as Smith and Woods had RBIhits. In the third, Ballard singled and scored on Russell’ssacrifice fly to make it a 6-0 game.

Mendenhall got an unearned run in the bottom of the third, butLawrence County put up 4 more runs in the top of the fourth.Stephens and Smith had RBI doubles in the inning. Ballard, Jackson,and Russell had singles.

Down 10-1, Mendenhall threw one last scare into Cougar fans bymounting a bit of a comeback in the bottom of the fourth. TheTigers scored 4 runs on 3 hits. Hickman’s 2-run single was thebiggest hit.

Lawrence County put the game away in the fifth. Joseph Evans had2 hits in the inning, and Ballard had a double, as the Cougarsscored 6 times. The game ended after 5 innings, via the 10-runrule.

In gaining the complete-game win, Hartzog allowed 6 hits, walked3, and struck out 5.

“For the third straight division week,” head coach Cory Keyessaid, “Trent gave us a good effort in the final game of the series.It’s not easy, especially for the pitcher and catcher, to go outthere and start a new game after playing a 4-hour marathon. He gotrefocused and did a good job for us.”