Senior night comes early

Sat, May 17 2008

— By Les Dixon / Sports Editor
Senior Night came a couple of months early for the Corbin Redhounds baseball team.
Corbin coach Jeff Garmon said he needed a senior to step up after Tuesday’s disappointing loss to Pulaski County and his seniors answered the challenge.
Joseph Hamlin kept visiting Clay County at bay on the mound, while Britt Brittain, Clint Cashen and Brandon Shinkle provided key hits to lead the Redhounds past the Tigers, 7-3.
“What we needed today was a senior to step up, and what we got was solid efforts out of our seniors,” Garmon said. “This was the same exact type of game as yesterday’s, but the difference was that I didn’t think we panicked tonight.”
Garmon said another difference from Tuesday’s loss to the Maroons and Wednesday’s win over Clay County was that his pitchers threw strikes.
“That’s the biggest thing,” he said. “I thought Joseph came in there and gave us a good effort. The key for us, is to throw strikes. I believe we have a good solid fielding team and when we get strikes, we’ll get what we got tonight and that was a win.”
Both teams struggled at the plate early until Corbin struck first with two runs in the bottom of the third inning.
Brittain doubled in both Corey Sewell and Josh Smith to give his team a 2-0 edge.
The Redhounds ran into some trouble in the top of the fifth after Hamlin gave up consecutive singles, which led to Coltin Hanson replacing the senior right-hander on the mound.
Hanson hit the first batter he faced and followed that up by allowing a run-scoring single to Zach Lewis. Clay County added two more runs — giving the Tigers a 3-2 lead — in the inning before Hanson got out of a bases loaded jam by striking out Justin Hobbs, while getting Brian Griffin to ground out to end the inning.
“We missed some shots early to take the lead and we had that one bad inning that gave them the lead,” Garmon said. “But like I said, we didn’t panic.”
Corbin responded by tying the game in the bottom of the fifth behind a run-scoring single by Brittain — who finished the game with two hits and three RBIs.
Hanson settled down in the top of the six inning and got Jamie Wilson to hit into a double play that ended the inning.
The Redhounds took control of the game in the bottom half of the inning by scoring four times.
Shinkle started things off with a line drive off Clay County’s third baseman.
By the time Corey Sewell came to the plate, Corbin had the bases loaded with no outs.
Sewell gave his team a 5-3 edge by delivering a two-run single and Cashen put the game out of reach with a two-run double.
Cashen finished the game with two doubles and two RBIs.
Ben Jones sealed the victory on the mound in the seventh inning for Corbin, which secured Hanson’s first varsity win.
“I would grade Coltin’s performance as good,” Garmon said. “We have a lot of juniors that have come out of our junior varsity program and now they’re getting the chance to pitch.
“If we just give ourselves time to improve, I believe we’ll be fine,” he added.

Corbin 7, Clay County 3
Clay County 000 030 0 3 7 2
Corbin 002 014 x 7 8 3
WP - Hanson. LP - Smith.

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