By Stephen Henderson

It’s baseball time in Patrick County once again, and the Patrick County High School Cougars hosted the Carroll County Cavaliers last Thursday afternoon in a double-header with the JV Cougars playing the first game.

In the varsity competition, the Cougars played to a 3-3 tie against the Cavaliers.

According to Coach Eric Renegar, the pitching staff “looked very good” in the scrimmage. “We limited walks in key situations and let our defense work,” he said.

Seth Scott went two and two-thirds innings for the start, rejoining the lineup in the seventh inning for a game tying single down the left field line.

“We shot ourselves in the foot early with some poor decision making and base running awareness, which would then run us out of a couple of innings and put us down 3-1,” Renegar said.

“Our bats picked up the pace a little bit in this scrimmage,” he said. “We began attacking fastballs more and our passive approach seemed to disappear for a few innings, which is an encouraging side of things,” he added.

Renegar praised the Cougar infield. “On the defensive end, our middle infielders Evan Hopkins and Parker Brown have been stellar. Both guys seemed to feel very comfortable with their positions, as well as working alongside each other,” he said.

“Kristian Ashburn has caught two very good ball games and seems to have taken hold of the catcher position for us which was a huge question mark coming into the season,” Renegar added.