HANCEVILLE, Ala. – In the nightcap of day one of the Cullman County Baseball Tournament, Good Hope took on the Holly Pond Broncos. After jolting out to an early lead, the Raiders ran away with the game, eventually taking an 11-1 victory to move onto the semifinals.
Starting the game on the mound for Good Hope was Nash Landon, who finished with 2.1 innings pitched, giving up one hit, allowing zero runs and striking out five batters. For Holly Pond, Sam Hunt pitched 4.1 innings and despite seven runs scored during his outing, only one was marked as earned.
After a four-batter top of the first inning came up empty for Holly Pond’s bats, Good Hope came out punching in their half. Leading the game off for the Raiders, Carter Rutherford smoked a ball to the center field wall for a triple. On the next at bat, Landon did the exact same thing, scoring Rutherford to give Good Hope a swift lead. On a passed ball error during the next at bat, Landon scored to make it 2-0. Hunt would eventually get out of the jam with three straight outs following a walk.
After Landon blanked the Broncos again in the top of the second, the Raiders added to their lead. Two errors led to runners getting on safely, with a walk loading the bases for Landon. Similarly to his first plate appearance, he took a ball for a ride to center field, sending two more runners home. A ground out by Micah Rickel pushed Rutherford in, then a sac-fly scored Landon to make it a 6-0 lead just two innings in.
Following a scoreless third frame for both teams, Holly Pond found home plate in the third to stop the bleeding. After a Jackson Miller single was wiped out by a double play on the next at bat, Hudson Stephens made it on with a single, followed by a Cole Eubanks walk. Ty Dunn stepped up to the plate, sending a ground ball to short that scored Stephens and got Dunn on base safely to make it a 6-1 deficit. The Raiders would respond in the bottom of the fourth, adding to their lead with a grounder from Rickel that scored Landon to make it 7-1.
The fifth was scoreless for both teams, and the top of the sixth saw three up, three down for the Broncos. To finish off the game, Good Hope scored four more in the bottom of the sixth, all coming on errors by the Holly Pond infield, with the Raiders earning an 11-1 win to move on to the Cullman County Tournament semifinals vs. West Point tomorrow at 1:30 p.m.
Leading the Raiders at the plate was Landon, whose double and triple sent three batters home. Earning the win for Good Hope on the mound was Alex Lay, who came into the game in the third inning and only gave up one run and struck out one batter in three innings.
