BELL BUCKLE, Tenn. – After dropping game one of their District 9-AA series at Summertown (10-8, 2-2), the Cascade Champions (11-5, 3-3) managed to even up the series with a 5-3 win on Tuesday. 

Wickey Parker got the start on the mound for Cascade, and although he walked seven batters, the lanky lefty managed to pitch 6.0 innings on 113 pitches and give up just three earned runs on two hits while striking out 10 batters. 

“That’s a typical Wickey Parker. Even though he’s a junior, he’s a young pitcher,” Cascade Head Coach Travis Sheffield said, “He did not pitch in middle school, and then his freshman year he got hurt at the end of basketball season. He didn’t start pitching until the summer heading into his sophomore year, so as good as he looks, he’s still learning how to pitch. The longer the game goes, the better he gets, but if we get him one time through the lineup, he gets comfortable and starts really pitching. He doesn’t let hitters get comfortable. Once he gets it all dialed in, he’s hard to hit.”

After Summertown took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third on a Ryder Blackwood RBI-single, the Champions responded with a pair of clutch two-out hits in the home half to take the lead. First, Thomas Demartelaere led off with a single, and then with two outs, Caleb Crouch delivered an RBI-double to tie the game at 1-1 before Jayden Hathcock smoked a 2-run home run on a line drive over the centerfield wall to give the hosts a 3-1 lead.

In the fourth, Parker led off with a single before River Maddox brought him home with a one-out RBI-single to extend the lead to 4-1.

Summertown got a pair of runs back in the top of the fifth following a leadoff walk from Parker. After coming up with a strikeout, Blackwood once again got the best of Parker with another RBI-single before stealing home following a dropped third strike to cut the lead to 4-3.

Cascade scored the final run of the game on a sacrifice fly from Parker that scored Jordan Childress from third with the bases loaded to take a 5-3 lead.

“Tonight, our approach [at the plate] was a little different,” Sheffield said, “We didn’t try to hit the ball out of the ballpark, even though we did end up with a home run, but even that was a scorching line drive that crept over the centerfield wall. We were trying to keep it simple and go gap to gap and cut down on our strikeouts. That was the biggest difference between [game one] and [game two].”

After Parker got through the sixth inning unscathed, Sheffield turned to Caleb Crouch to close the door in the top of the seventh. After a pair of nervy walks, Crouch settled down to secure the save with three consecutive outs.

At the plate for Cascade, Childress led off going 1-for-4, Crouch went 2-for-4  with an RBI-double, and Jayden Hathcock finished 1-for-2 with a walk and a 2-run home run. This was Hathcock’s team-leading second round-tripper this season. Parker went 1-for-3 with an RBI, Maddox was 1-for-3 with an RBI, and Demartelaere finished 2-for-3. 

Cascade travels to Richland on Friday before hosting Coffee County on Monday. Both games’ first-pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.