By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
CEDAR BLUFF – Cedar Bluff junior Kuper Bradley is used to being a situational pitcher, not one used to logging a lot of innings.
But he proved he could do just that on Saturday afternoon against Spring Garden.
Bradley came in early to relieve starter Caleb Edmondson after he walked the first three batters he faced. He got out of the jam with just two runners scoring, then got stronger as the game went along.
Bradley tossed all seven innings, scattering six hits and allowing just single runs in the top of the fourth and fifth innings. He also struck out four batters in the Tigers’ 10-4 victory.
“I was pretty nervous when I came in,” said Bradley, who tossed 96 pitches and also went 2-for-3 at the plate. “I’ve never pitched like that. The most I’ve ever thrown in a game is like 30 (pitches), but my curve ball was working. It took a minute for my fastball to work, and my slider was working. I was having to pitch away from some of them and keep it out of the middle of the plate, trying to keep it outside, but I wasn’t having to try to strike people out or worry about people scoring because we had the lead.”
Cedar Bluff (5-1) scored five runs for Bradley in the bottom of the second inning and five more in the bottom of the fifth. That run support proved plentiful for him.
“For seven innings he did fantastic,” Cedar Bluff coach Colby Coursey said. “He’d only been a 50-pitch pen and throwing a couple of innings here and there, but for him to come in and do what he did was fantastic. We mixed them up – curve ball, fastball, slider. He did all those things and threw them for strikes, and our defense played extremely well behind him. I think we had one or two errors, but we did enough to control the damage.
“Spring Garden is a great team. They have a ton of experience. They’re going to have a fantastic year, so to have a win like this against them was really big.”
Down 2-0 in the bottom of the second, Cedar Bluff batted around against Panther starter Connor Bates. The big blow of the inning came on a bases-clearing double to center with two outs by shortstop Hunter Stallings.
“Hunter is seeing the ball exceptionally well right now. He’s got 14 hits in five games,” Coursey said. “It’s not just bloop hits. He’s barreling the baseball up and driving it. There in a situation with two outs, he got ahead in the count and sat on a fastball. He ripped it to center field and pushed the runners around. He did a very good job up there of having a plan.”
Spring Garden (0-3) managed to make it a 5-4 game by scoring unearned runs in the top of the fourth and fifth innings, but the Tigers put another five-spot together by sending 11 batters to the plate against Panther relievers Hayes Garmon and Carson Bostick.
Tiger catcher Jacob Chambers doubled to center to lead off the inning. Edmondson later delivered a two-run single to center.
“We did a good job working the count, seeing the count, really picking out pitches we wanted to hit,” Coursey said.
John Welsh led the Panthers at the plate by going 2-for-3. Bostick and Garmon both had a single and a walk. Zane Edwards had a RBI-single to center in the first. Joel Hunter had a pinch-hit run-scoring single to left in the fifth.
Bates suffered the loss for the Panthers after working four innings. He scattered five runs on five hits, walked two, hit two batters and finished with five strikeouts.
