Published: May 17, 2008 10:35 pm            

‘Clicking’ Cougars take down Fairview

WESTWOOD — Morgan County coach Brandon Evans thinks his team is clicking at the right time.

The Cougars’ bats did not prove him wrong in Saturday afternoon’s 13-7 victory over Fairview. They tallied 14 hits and hit three home runs against the Eagles.

“Any time we made a comeback, they would step up to the plate and put the game further out of reach,” said Fairview coach Rick Lambert.

Morgan County (13-7) scored four times before Fairview (10-9) managed to get a hit.

Cougars pitcher Mitchell Harvey found trouble, however, in the bottom of the third inning. He walked two and hit a batter to load the bases.

Eagles senior Matt Thompson made Harvey pay with a bases-clearing double to the left center field gap.

Fairview never tied or took the lead, though, and Morgan County made sure of that in the fifth inning.

After Jon Lopez hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning, Jared Fannin slammed a three-run home run to right center field off of Fairview’s Matt Jones in the fifth. Five runs crossed the plate in the inning, which gave Morgan County an 11-3 lead.

According to Lambert, the Cougars’ power surge took some energy out of the Eagles.

“You could see it in their body language,” Lambert said. “We finally picked the momentum back up in the last inning. I was proud they didn’t just lay down and die.”

Fairview scored twice in the seventh inning and then loaded the bases for Thompson, who had five RBIs already.

Morgan County’s Andy Fannin got Thompson to pop out to end the game. Thompson finished 2-for-5. Jones and Casey Clark each scored two of the runs Thompson drove in.

“Matt’s an outstanding high school hitter,” Lambert said. “He gets down on himself sometimes though. I told him, ‘you’re doing well. You have five RBIs.’ He said he wanted about six or seven.”

Although he battled control issues, Fannin struck out five Eagles in two innings.

“This is the first year he’s pitched since his freshman year,” Evans said. “He’s had two arm surgeries and he was out about two and a half weeks with tendonitis. I was just trying to get him some innings to get ready for the district tournament.”

Fairview and Morgan County combined to throw seven pitchers to save arms for the postseason.

Evans hopes his team can repeat what it accomplished last season, in winning the 62nd district tournament.

“We were kind of the sleeper team last year,” Evans said. “We started clicking at the end of the season. Hopefully we can get the same results this year.”

Now riding a four-game win streak, Morgan County will face West Carter at Morgan County on Monday. The Cougars won the two teams’ only previous meeting this season.

Fairview and Ashland will duel in the first round of the 64th district tournament on Tuesday at Boyd County.

“With all the rain and everything, we were only able to play 19 games this season,” Lambert said. “That could cause us some problems, but I think we’ll be ready. Ashland better bring their ‘A’ game because we definitely will.”

MORGAN COUNTY 013 251 1 — 13 14 4

FAIRVIEW 003 011 2 — 7 8 2

Harvey, Nickell (4), Adkins (5), A. Fannin (6) and J. Fannin; Thompson, Brown (3), Jones (5) and Evans. W—Harvey. L—Thompson. 2B—Morgan Co., Harvey 2. Fairview, Thompson. 3B—Fairview, Clark. HR—Morgan Co., Lopez, J. Fannin, Adkins.

        

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