Wlaf1450On Tuesday night, the Campbell County Middle School Cougars Baseball team brought home the barrel in the inaugural “Battle for the Barrel” Baseball Tournament that also serves as the team’s end-of-season tournament. The Cougars went toe-to-toe with an outstanding and gritty Cumberland Gap team winning 4-3 in a 7 inning marathon with a walk-off single by Davin Welch, bringing Eli Austin in to score. That’s after Mason Shanks made it home on a passed ball by the catcher to tie the game. Shanks helped himself to earn the win by throwing a complete 7 inning game on 133 pitches striking out nine Panthers while holding CG to 6 hits with only two earned runs.
TOP PHOTO: Some of the Cougars team members
Mason Shanks on the mound
The game, played on Brown-Archer Field, was a true team effort with all the varsity players combining for 9 for 24 with a combined .375 batting average, a .458 slugging percentage as a team and a .558 on base percentage. It all came on five walks and three hit batters.
Eli Austin comes home for the win
The championship game was the culmination of a tournament that saw CCMS beat Bell County (Kentucky) 10-4 and a subsequent forfeit by Lee County (Virginia). The “Battle for the Barrel” championship win left CCMS the 2019 undefeated champions. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 05/15/2019-6AM-PHOTOS COURTESY OF JASON AUSTIN)