The West Limestone Wildcats were back on the baseball diamond Monday where they took on the Athens Bible Trojans and then the East Limestone Indians.

Coming off victories over the Ardmore Tigers and the Brewer Patriots in another doubleheader, they extended their win streak to four games by completing a sweep with final scores of 11-1 and a nail-biting finish against the Indians with a final score of 1-0.

The offense didn’t get going for the Wildcats until the bottom of the third inning in the first game against the Trojans.

West Limestone’s River Helms reached base on a Trojans’ error, giving them their first baserunner of the game. Helms advanced to second on a fielder’s choice.

Ian Burroughs followed that up with a single to once again advance Helms up a base. Helms and Burroughs both scored in the next at bat on an error and an RBI groundout by Thorne Slaton, giving the Wildcats a 2-0 lead after three innings.

Athens Bible would get on the board in the fourth for its only run of the game, though it was an unearned run attributed to West Limestone’s starting pitcher Devin Carter because of Wildcat errors.

The Wildcats did make up for those errors in the bottom half of the inning by tacking on two more runs. West Limestone’s Ryan Britt opened the frame with a single. An error then allowedColin Patterson to reach base. Wildcat’s Brody White took full advantage of the miscue in the field by hitting an RBI double to center field, bringing Britt home and advancing Patterson to third. Patterson would make it home in the next at-bat by Carter, who hit a sacrifice fly to center field, giving the Wildcats a 4-1 advantage at the end of the fourth.

The Wildcats added five more runs in the fifth inning, bringing the score to 9-1 leading into what would be the sixth and final inning of the game.

Slaton opened the inning with a double. One out later, Britt hit a bloop single to center field adding one more to the total of 10. With one more run, the game would be called. After a hit by pitch and a walk, loading the bases with one out in the inning, Carter knocked in the winning run with a single to center field, securing the first victory of the day over the Trojans with a 10-run advantage.

“We have hit pretty well all year so far,” West Limestone head coach Ryan Griffin said. “I thought their starter (Spencer Blake) threw well. He had a really good curveball and kept us off balance, but fortunately, we were able to open it up.”

Pitching duel by East and West starters leads to Wildcat victory

West Limestone’s Colin Patterson and East Limestone’s Jacob Eslick put on a pitching show in the second game of the doubleheader for the Wildcats. Patterson pitched five innings, allowing no runs, one walk, two hits while striking out 11 Indians batters. Eslick’s final line was four hits allowed, zero walks and six strikeouts. But one run is all it took and that proved to be a costly one in the sixth inning.

Pinch hitter Ian Burroughs got on base with a single with one out in the bottom half of the frame. Next up to bat was Ryan Britt, who hit a ground ball that resulted in a throwing error that allowed the runners to advance to second and third, respectively.

With one out in the inning, Patterson added to his stellar final line from the pitcher’s mound with an RBI groundout to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead heading into the seventh.

West Limestone’s Logan Martin, who came in for relief of Patterson in the sixth inning, came back out to close out the game and that’s what he did by striking out the side in order and giving the Wildcats their second victory of the day.

“Eslick did an outstanding job. He’s the best guy we have seen all year as far as command goes. He didn’t have any hit by pitches, he didn’t have any walks and didn’t help us at all,” Griffin said. “I was proud of our guys for stepping up with some big pitches. Our starter did well, came in throwing strikes and our guy in the bullpen, Logan Martin, he came up huge for us in that moment. I didn’t think one run would be enough, but he came in and threw strikes. I’m proud of him.”

East Limestone’s head coach Bradley Craig, despite coming out on the losing end, realized the significance of that game going forward.

“It was a great game. Their guy pitched a great game locating his pitches. I thought our guy dud a great job, guys did a great job behind him,” he said. “That right there was a fun baseball game. That is a game that will get your ready for your area games.”