It took a little while, but West Limestone’s baseball bats finally heated up on a chilly Friday night, and it led to a 15-5 victory over Elkmont.

The Wildcats led just 2-0 through three innings, but exploded for six runs in the fourth and seven more in the fifth to pull away.

After scoring six runs in the bottom of the fourth to take an 8-0 lead, Elkmont came back with five runs in the top of the fifth thanks to several walks and hit batsmen. Brian Rios had the big hit of the inning with a three-run double.

However, West came back with seven runs in the bottom of the fifth to end the game due to the 10-run rule after five innings.

Three runs scored on an error before Drew Beddingfield drove in another run with a single. The sixth run of the inning also scored on an error before Gage McKelvey ended the game with a ground ball to shortstop that scored Jesse Rose from third base, sliding just under the tag of the catcher.

“We were pretty crisp there until the fifth inning,” West Limestone coach Will McDaniel said. “We walked a couple, hit a guy and let them back in the game. Thankfully, we capitalized on the opportunities they gave us there in the last inning and were able to save some pitching.”

That was the biggest point, as West Limestone played five games last week, which stressed the pitching staff. McDaniel had each pitcher on a 25-pitch limit, no matter how well they were pitching.

Garrett Tennison, Nick Townsend, Clayten Pugh and Alec Baugher each pitched in Friday’s win.

“That’s the biggest thing, because we played Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, tonight, and play two tomorrow (Saturday),” McDaniel said. “Managing the pitch count is hard. We’ve got five or six guys who can pitch. It’s cold out, which makes it more difficult. The Major Leaguers are in Florida and Arizona and they’re not throwing but 50 pitches. We’re trying to protect these guys arms until it warms up.”

One thing that has warmed up is West Limestone’s bats. The Wildcats started the season 0-3, scoring a total of eight runs in the process. But the Wildcats won the next three, scoring eight runs against East Limestone in an 8-1 victory and 29 total runs in back-to-back wins over Elkmont (14-5 and 15-5).

“We’re hitting it a lot better,” McDaniel said. “All these guys have been in the program long enough where everybody kind of understands what’s going on now, so that helps.”

Beddingfield had four hits and two RBIs while Alec Baugher had a hit and four RBIs. Dalton Baugher had two hits, while Rose and Levi McCormick both had two RBIs.