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The THS Diamond Dogs defeated Lincoln County at home Feb. 28 by a score of 8-3.
“It’s always good to get a win,” Coach Aaron Hall said.
Thomson got on the board early in the game, scoring three runs in the bottom of the second inning.
Designated hitter Clay Blasingame came to bat with the Dogs already down by two outs to drive a single into left field.
Travis Stephens followed with a double into right. With two runners on base, Josh Jones, representing the top of the batting order, came to bat and hit a two-run double into left field.
Jones went on to steal both third and home to bring the total runs for the inning up to three.
“It was something we worked on in practice, getting runners on and moving them over, and it came through this time,” Jones said after the game. “He threw me a slider outside, and I don’t really like sliders, but I had two strikes on me so I had to hit what he threw me.”
The Dogs scored two more runs in the third inning when Andy Grimaud and Austin Cooper each reached base on singles. Grimaud and Cooper both reached home off sacrifices by Hank Doupe and Chad Austin, respectively.
Thomson added two additional runs in the fifth when a double by Austin Cooper drove in base runners Austin Whitehouse and Andy Grimaud, who had reached base on a double and a base on balls.
“ He threw me a fast ball, and that’s what we practice on every day,” Cooper said. “I was able to get it in the gap and drive in the two runs. It was a double, but I felt like I could have stretched it into a triple, but they got it back in pretty fast.”
Thomson scored again in the sixth inning after Josh Jones knocked a single into center and stole second. A Hunter Bragg sacrifice bunt moved Jones over to third, and he was then driven home by a sacrifice fly to right field by Whitehouse.
A strong start by pitcher Grimaud held the Lincoln County Red Devils scoreless in the first two innings. Grimaud only allowed three runs in the game, one each in the third, fourth, and fifth innings. Jones relieved Grimaud on the mound in the sixth inning, and Hank Doupe came in to close the seventh and struck out the side.
“I think we did a good job on pitching and defense tonight,” Hall said. “We did a pretty good job hitting, though I felt like we left too many runners on base. But we did a good job of executing tonight and that led to some key runs.”
