EAST CARTER -- A game that was up for grabs between Bernie and East Carter quickly got out of hand in the fifth inning.
Entering the home half of the fifth with a 4-2 lead, East Carter's leadoff batter Alex Kearbey was hit by a pitch, which was the spark that got things going for the Redbirds.
From there, a single from Cody Hampton, a two-RBI triple that blasted the wall in center field from Dalton Rudd, an RBI double courtesy of Jordan Douglas and an RBI sacrifice fly led to the hosts seizing control of the game. The Redbirds kept pouring it on en route to a 12-2, six-inning victory via run rule.
After the fifth-inning onslaught in which its entire batting order stepped to the plate, East Carter followed the effort up with an equally impressive sixth.
"It's still early, and we're starting to see the ball better," East Carter head coach Scott Henfling said. "We're starting to get a little seasoned. We'd been young for the last two or three years."
After a Kearbey fly out, Hampton stepped into the batter's box and roped a line drive double into the wall in left-center field. Hampton later scored on a balk by Bernie pitcher Jordan McGowen.
Rudd added a single, beating a throw to first base by a fraction of a second after Bernie shortstop Weston Zoll made a running backhanded grab on a grounder. Douglas brought Rudd home by becoming the third Redbird batter to drive a ball to the wall with a double in right-center.
"I love it when they hit line drives like that," Henfling said. "I know they love to see the long ball, but I'd rather see the long line drive."
Rudd had a solid all-around performance to help propel East Carter (3-1). He went three of four at the plate with two RBIs, and pitched a three up, three down inning on the mound, striking out all three batters.
"It feels great just to contribute to runs and help us get a lead in the game. I thought it'd be a pretty good game. You can never take a team lightly," Rudd said. "Arm felt good. Just have to keep working on it and keep getting better."
A bases-loaded walk scored the final run for East Carter, pushing the game to a 10-run deficit.
Bernie (0-1) had its chances to put up more runs, but it couldn't capitalize on enough opportunities.
"We gotta execute better. We missed a couple guys, missed a couple bunts or bunted the ball right back to the pitcher, things like that. You get those baserunners on, move guys around and maybe you manufacture a run or two," Bernie head coach Marcus Massey said.
In the top of the third and the score at 3-1 in favor of the Redbirds, Weston Zoll and Josh Vaughn were consecutively hit by pitches with two outs. Wyatt Barnett was walked to load the bases, and Jaden McGowen popped a single to center field. Zoll scored, but Hampton chucked the ball to home plate from center field and catcher Matt McLean tagged out Vaughn at the plate to preserve East Carter's lead.
The Mules didn't score for the remainder of the game.
"We're still young, you know, so we feel like by the end of the year we'll show a lot of growth. And for me, I always love to come out and play teams that are competitive, and I hope all season long we face teams like (East Carter) that'll do a good job and play the game the right way and make us better," Massey said.
East Carter finished the game with 12 hits to four for Bernie. Colby Miller got the start on the mound for East Carter, going 2 â…" innings and allowing just one hit and one earned run. Wyatt Barnett had a strong showing on the mound for the Mules, but with the visitors playing four games over the next five days, he was on a 45-pitch limit. He allowed just two hits and struck out four. The Mules finished with four errors.