TAYLORSVILLE – Lawrence County handled 2A powerhouse Taylorsville 8-2 in non-division baseball action Saturday afternoon at the Taylorsville Sportsplex. The Cougars jumped to an early lead and then rode the two-hit pitching of Brennan Lang to an easy win.

With the victory, Josh Garrett’s Cougars improved to 13-1 on the season. Lawrence County is 6-0 in Division 6-4A play, heading into this week’s three-game series against Florence.

“We had a pretty good day,” said Garrett. “I thought Brennan had a good day, and we defended well until the last inning. Offensively, I was a little frustrated that we couldn’t blow the game open. We had plenty of opportunities.”

Free passes cost both starting pitchers a run in the first inning. Taylorsville’s hard-throwing Ashton White hit a batter and walked two others in the top of the first, setting up Marcus Kees’ two-out, two-run single. In the bottom of the first, Lang issued a two-out walk to Raven Arrington, who came around to score on Branson Sharpley’s two-out double.

After Sharpley’s RBI double, Lang would settle in and retire the next 10 Taylorsville batters. Lawrence County, meanwhile, continued to add runs. Four consecutive walks handed the Cougars a run and necessitated a second-inning pitching change. White was relieved by Lane Booth, who worked the remainder of the game for the Tartars.

In the third, Josh Stephens walked, moved to second on another Kees single, moved to third on a Gabriel Lewis sacrifice bunt, and scored on Lang’s sac fly. Kees later scored on a wild pitch to make it a 5-1 game.

In the fourth, Marcus Atterberry singled and Stephens added an RBI double, giving the Cougars a 6-1 lead. It remained 6-1 until the top of the seventh. Kasey Durr hit a two-out double. Brandon Bullock reached on an error. T-Tez Cole plated both with a double to left-center. Taylorville plated an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh.

Lang was rock-solid. The senior southpaw allowed only the Sharpley double and a Lane Booth single. He did hit two batters, and both came around to score the only Tartar runs. Lang struck out eight.

Lawrence County also had a good time of it in junior varsity play, winning 10-0 in four innings. Trey Thurman allowed just two hits and struck out six. The LCHS jayvees banged out 11 hits in just four innings of hitting. Prentiss Anderson and Marquez Hudson each had two hits. Thurman, Oliver Moreman, Walt Lowe, Landon Trott, Kyles Graves, Cameron Woods, and Bryce Bullock also had hits. Anderson, Hudson, and Moreman had doubles.

Lawrence County returns to Division 6-4A play on Tuesday night, at Florence.