BELL BUCKLE, Tenn. – In game two of the two-game series against District 9-AA foe Chapel Hill (8-5, 3-1), the Cascade Champions (7-4, 2-2) used a complete-game shutout from Jayden Hathcock to take down the Rockets on Tuesday, 4-0.

Hathcock pitched 7.0 masterful innings, giving up just a single hit and one walk while striking out eight batters on just 83 pitches.

“Tonight, he was challenging guys with his fastball up,” Cascade Head Coach Travis Sheffield said, “He had some backspin on his fastball, and it was rising on their guys. We didn’t have to throw many offspeeds.”

Houston Matlock got the start for Chapel Hill, and he lasted 5.0 innings for the visiting Rockets. Matlock gave up two earned runs on six hits and three walks with five strikeouts on 84 pitches. Travis Porter came on in relief for the sixth inning, giving up two runs – one earned – on three hits with one strikeout on 27 pitches.

At the plate Cascade tallied nine hits with a pair of doubles as a team. The bottom of the lineup came up with five of the nine hits with both Thomas Demartelaere and Caleb Crouch coming up with two hits apiece and one RBI apiece. 

“One thing that we’ve been trying to preach – especially the last couple weeks – is winning counts,” Sheffield said, “Not so much hunting pitches, but hunting counts. We’re keeping track of who’s winning the battle of 2-0 counts, 2-1, 3-1, and even 0-0’s. Those are high percentage counts where something good typically happens. On Monday night, they beat us in those counts. Tonight we did a much better job.”

After neither team scored in the first inning, Cascade was able to push across a pair of two-out runs to take a 2-0 lead. First, Daymian Maldonado worked a leadoff walk before being caught stealing, Jayden Hathcock singled, and then River Maddox delivered a two-out single to keep the inning alive. Then, Demartelaere delivered a clutch RBI-single up the middle before Caleb Crouch drove Maddox home from second on an RBI-single into left.

Both pitchers settled into a groove for the next three innings until Porter came in for Matlock. After Porter retired the first two batters, Cascade generated another two-out rally with three-consecutive singles followed by a dropped fly ball to tack on two insurance runs heading into the top of the seventh. 

Hathcock promptly struck out the side in the seventh to secure his second win of the season. 

Cascade improves to 7-4 overall. The Champions finish out the week playing in the Mid-South Classic before returning to district play on Monday, Apr. 6, at Summertown.