Cascade had two runners thrown out at home while trying to score on wild pitches. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge]

The night after pulling off an upset at Lincoln County, Cascade was unable to avoid the letdown bug and fell 7-5 to visiting Huntland on Friday.

"It's a different feeling," Cascade coach Chris Parker said. "I want to thank coach (Michael) Tipps and the Huntland Hornets for doing us a favor and teaching us a lesson. Hopefully we'll learn from it. Maybe this will mean something on down the road."

Huntland (15-12) jumped on top quick with four runs on three hits in the top of the first.

Corey Mullins was hit by a pitch and came around the score in the bottom half of the initial inning but the visibly flat Champions (21-5) were held scoreless for the next three frames.

The Hornets piled on three more insurance runs in the fifth thanks to a single, a catcher's interference call and three errors by the hosts.

Huntland's Ryan Gardner is tagged out at first base by Jay Bishop on a pickoff play. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge]

Blake Harvey was the losing pitcher. Chase Nunley came on in relief and struck out seven in six innings of hill time. He also gave up six hits and three walks and helped his own cause as best he could with a home run to left.

"I feel like we have good pitching," Parker said. "If you've got good pitching, you've got to have good defense to go with it. If you don't, you put yourself in a bind and you're going to have to score a lot of runs."

With two down and their backs against the wall in the bottom of the seventh, three Cascade seniors, playing their last regular season game in Wartrace, sparked a rally. Nick Batts singled to center, MoMo Stewart doubled home Batts and Kyle Clanton worked a base on balls. Sophomore Tyler Bowen followed suit with a two-run double. Eighth grader Jared Carkuff reached via walk to represent the tying run and Jay Bishop walked as well to put the potential go-ahead score on board.

Champion senior Matt Bain runs into Hornet pitcher Casey Shelton on a pop up in foul territory. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge]

Huntland reliever Travis Ashley coaxed a groundout to end the scare and the Champs left the bases loaded for the second time.

"We battled back and there's something good about that. As soon as we put our pants on, we need to be ready to battle," Parker said.

Cascade's coach hopes his squad left the diamond with something to carry with them mentally through the postseason.

"In sports, you've got to come focused every day ready to play, especially this late in the season. We didn't do a very good job of that, and we were trying to treat the rest of the season like a playoff atmosphere and we didn't do that."

Casey Shelton singled twice for the winners. He was also the winning pitcher.

The Champs' last regular season game is against Trousdale County at Cumberland University in Lebanon on Tuesday at 4:30.