Josh Brown pitched the first three innings of the Cascade no-hitter. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge]

These two teams met for the district crown last May and both entered Monday's contest undefeated in 9-A play.

The Champions showed they won't easily be knocked off their perch by getting a combined no-hitter from Josh Brown, Chase Nunley and Kyle Saylor to aid in a 10-0 run-ruled rout.

Brown, who has made a habit out of dropping zeros under the 'H' column in the scorebook, worked the first three innings, striking out five and walking two. Nunley and Saylor then struck out a Cougar apiece in their hitless single frames.

"My pitchers work real hard," Cascade coach Chris Parker said. "They report about six weeks earlier than the major leaguers. We come out here in January and they throw and do all the drills, exercise and run throughout the whole year.

"We ask a lot of a lot of different guys. This is a great strength for our baseball team, and they proved it again today."

Not to be outdone, the Orange and Black hit squad started pounding away early and often.

MoMo Stewart walked and stole second to lead off the bottom of the first. Corey Mullins followed with a single. After Nick Batts sacrificed Stewart home, Kyle Clanton doubled in Mullins. An error off the bat of Brown allowed Clanton to touch home to push the early advantage to 3-0.

Matt Bain walked, swiped second base and scored on a Zack Hill line drive base hit to center for the lone Champion tally in the second.

A one-out, three-run double by Stewart highlighted a third inning that saw 10 hitters climb into the box for Cascade (13-2, 7-0 9-A), with six of them scoring.

Parker was more than pleased with the offensive output after not seeing any live pitching since last Wednesday.

"We thought we might have a little bit of slippage, but the boys did a good job of focusing when we went inside to hit," he said. "They did a good job of staying on the ball and hitting it the other way. That's what you've got to do to be successful at this game at this level."

Clanton paired his two-bagger with a single to account for a quarter of his team's eight hits.

Andrew Kuhn was the losing pitcher for MTC (10-6, 4-1).

The 9-A rivals trot back on the diamond today at 5 in Murfreesboro.

Blake Harvey is scheduled to start on the hill for Cascade, while the Cougars are likely to counter with Taylor Beckham.

"Taylor's a competitor," Parker said. "He's going to throw strikes. You're going to have to beat him. He's not going to beat himself."