TYLERTOWN – The Lawrence County Cougars defeated the Tylertown Chiefs 16-0 in Region 7-4A baseball action Tuesday night. Matt Patterson had 3 hits, including a 3-run homer, and Hunter Stephens breezed through 4 shutout innings, as LCHS earned its first region win of the season.

With the win, Cory Keyes’ Cougars improved to 6-6 overall, and 1-2 in 7-4A play. The two teams will conclude their 2-game home-and-home series at Jimmie Davis Park on Friday.

“We had a good night,” Keyes said. “Matt’s big blow really broke the game open, and Hunter was really in command. Hopefully, we can build on this night and continue to improve.”

The first 2 Lawrence County batters of the game were hit by Edward Holmes fastballs, and both came around to score, as the Cougars grabbed a 2-0 lead. Rusty Rowells had a single in the second, and LCHS catcher Cade Turner bunted home a run, as the margin grew to 3-0.

Though happy to have a 3-0 lead, the Cougars really weren’t doing much with the hard-throwing Holmes. That changed in the top of the third, when T-Tez Cole led off with a booming double to right-center. Later in the frame, Patterson hit a mammoth blast. That gave Lawrence County a 6-0 lead and total control of the game.

Stephens cruised through 3 innings, retiring all 9 Tylertown batters, 4 of them via the strikeout. In the bottom of the fourth, Tylertown’s Justin Burch broke up Stephens’ no-hit bid with a double to right. He was later thrown out attempting to steal.

Stephens faced the minimum 12 batters in 4 innings. Jordan McCaffrey came in and worked a perfect fifth.

In the top of the fourth, Lawrence County piled on 8 runs as the Chiefs made multiple pitching changes. Patterson, Turner, and Will Jackson each had doubles, and Patrick Little added a single.

The Cougars closed out the scoring with 2 more runs in the top of the fifth. Patterson and Little again hit safely. The game was halted, via the 10-run rule, after 5 innings.

Tylertown, coached by Chris McCallum, fell to 2-7 overall, and 0-3 in the region.

Lawrence County also won in junior varsity action, 13-4. Noah McLaurin and Logan Greenlee each had 2 hits, and Brennan Lang threw 5 quality innings, striking out 5.