BY JAMES PENCE
For The Republic
The hit parade for Columbus North came early on. The Bull Dogs tallied five hits and five runs in the first inning and looked well on their way to a victory.
Shelbyville, however, made a big change of plans.
The Golden Bears rallied for six runs in the top of the seventh, and the Bull Dogs could not respond in the bottom of the inning, and Shelbyville pulled out a 10-8 baseball victory.
“Tuesday night (in a 7-2 loss at Columbus East), we didn’t look very well,” Shelbyville coach Scott Hughes said. “We didn’t play well, but we had a great day of practice Wednesday.”
In the bottom first, leadoff hitter Tyler Finke doubled, and Wade Rankin scored him with a single. After Cooper Trinkle walked, Kevin Thompson drove in Rankin with a double. Parker Maddox added an RBI-single, and then Grant Trinkle hit an RBI-double for a 5-0 lead.
Shelbyville quietly started closing the gap throughout the game. The Golden Bears responded with a Mark Kuhn two-run homer to cut it 5-2. Each team scored a run in the third.
Rankin led off the bottom of the fourth with a double and later scored on a Trinkle double to make it 7-3.
John Lux tripled to start the fifth for Shelbyville and later scored on a sacrifice fly. In the bottom of the sixth, a couple of Golden Bears errors led to a North run to make it 8-4.
The Shelbyville rally ensued, with Logan Young smacking a double and scoring on a Damon Lux double. After a walk and hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, Damon Lux scored on a wild pitch. Eadin Balting slapped an RBI-single, and then Cory Taylor cleaned up the rest of the bases driving in two runs with a double.
“It’s not the outcome, it’s the process,” Hughes said. “So when we were down 5-0, we told ourselves that it’s OK and there is plenty of ball game left. We were not going crazy and we were just trusting ourselves. We started hitting the ball late in the game, and apparently, that was left in us.”
