Comeback kids

By Staff
Mike Self FCT Sports Editor
PHIL CAMPBELL - Should Phil Campbell and Hatton meet at some point in the Class 2A playoffs, the Hornets will hearken back to the lesson they learned from Thursday's doubleheader: No lead, no matter how large or how late, is safe against the Bobcats.
Phil Campbell rallied for four runs in the bottom of the seventh to win game one 4-3 and then scored five runs in their final at bat in the nightcap before finally succumbing to a 13-12 defeat that gave Hatton a hard-earned split.
Whether or not the Bobcats' comebacks will give them a psychological edge against the Hornets remains to be seen.
Hatton starter Calvin Ard had no worries through the first six innings of game one, holding Phil Campbell (18-7) to four hits and getting 11 groundball outs as the Hornets built a 3-0 lead.
Adam Mitchell jumpstarted the Bobcats' seventh-inning rally with a leadoff double, and Dillon Hamby reached on an error.
Mitchell then scored Phil Campbell's first run when Hamby was thrown out stealing second.
Korey Pounders started the rally anew with a single to right field, and Griffin Harris drew a walk. Jonathan Dill's RBI double off the shortstop's glove trimmed the lead to 3-2 and put runners at second and third.
Randy Cochran followed with a high chopper to short, and Harris scored the tying run when Hatton's catcher couldn't hang on to the throw to the plate.
Lacey then ripped a 2-2 fastball to left, scoring Dill with the winning run.
Half of Phil Campbell's eight hits off Ard came in the bottom of the seventh.
Steven Lacey earned the win, allowing three runs on seven hits in a complete game. He struck out five and walked two, getting an inning-ending double play in the third and pitching out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fifth.
Hatton got RBI singles from Lou Byars and Chris Hutto in the top of the second, and Hutto's leadoff homer in the fifth made it 3-0.
Harris was 2-for-2 with a pair of walks.
The second game lasted more than three hours as the teams combined for 25 runs, 32 hits (including 12 doubles), and eight pitchers used.
Cochran, after going 0-for-4 in the opener, finished 5-for-5 in game two with a home run, three doubles, and five RBIs.
Hatton led 13-7 after scoring four runs in the top of the seventh, but the Bobcats refused to go quietly.
Kevin Lacey drew a leadoff walk, and after a force out Caleb Thompson reached on an error. Mitchell's third double of the day made it 13-8, and Pounders walked to load the bases.
Hamby was hit by a pitch to force home a run, and Harris drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 13-10.
After Dill struck out for the second out, Cochran smoked a two-run double into the gap in left-center to pull the Bobcats within a run.
With runners at second and third, Kevin Lacey lined out softly to second for the final out.
Trent Stewart, the first of five Hatton pitchers, left with a 9-3 lead after three innings and earned the win. Dill started for Phil Campbell and took the loss. Kevin Lacey and Mitchell both pitched in relief.
After a two-run double by Will Nichols in the top of the first gave Hatton the early lead, Cochran crushed a solo homer to left in the bottom half to get Phil Campbell on the board.
The Hornets scored five times in the top of the third, but the Bobcats got two in the bottom of the inning on Cochran's RBI double and Steven Lacey's run-scoring infield hit.
Hatton got those two runs back in the fourth to make it 9-3, but an RBI single by Cochran and a three-run double by Thompson in the fifth made it 9-7.
Harris was 2-for-3 with two runs scored, and Thompson and Mitchell each went 2-for-4.
Nichols had four hits and three RBIs for Hatton, and Nathan Berryman and Stewart each went 3-for-4.