After ending the first inning tied at five with Lynn Camp, Pineville outscored the Wildcats by 18 runs in the remaining four innings to claim a 24-6 victory over their district foe on Thursday. While the win doesn’t affect district tournament seeding, it does help erase the taste of back-to-back losses.

It was Pineville’s patience at the plate that help the team earn the victory. Determined to wait on the right pitch, the Mountain Lions tallied 14 walks while registering 12 hits on the evening.

“We’ve been talking about being more disciplined (and) being more patient at the plate. Other teams are real patient against us, and that’s probably why we walk more guys than we want,” said Pineville coach Chris Murphy. “The first couple of innings we were hitting the ball where we wanted to hit it. Then I guess (Lynn Camp) got out of some pitching, and they started walking us a little bit.

“The guys were patient and I told them they’ve been working hard on what I’ve been telling them. It worked out tonight.”

Timothy Gambrel and Cole Gent paced the team at the plate with both tallying two hits on the day. Gent finished with five RBIs and three runs, while Gambrel picked up four RBIs and two runs.

Reed Baker and Cody Goodin led Pineville in runs with five and four, respectively. Deon Coffman also scored three runs during the game.

After a rough first inning, the Lion defense held Lynn Camp at bay with the team allowing only four hits. Reese Capps earned the victory on the mound after allowing one earned run on four hits through four innings.

“We started off with (Jonathan Simpson) on the mound. He just struggled (and) couldn’t find the strike zone. I think he walked six (and) we had a couple of errors,” said Murphy. “Then we brought Reese in. (He) threw strikes, defense backed him up pretty well. We didn’t have any errors after that, so I’m pretty pleased defensively.”

Chase Brown led the Wildcats at the plate scoring two runs on one hit and one walk. Domanick Cook and Jacob Cox both tallied one run and one RBI apiece.

Lynn Camp cycled through five pitchers over the course of the game. Clay Tucker was credited with the loss after allowing eight runs on three hits through one-plus innings of work.

With the game tied at 5-all, Pineville started pulling away in the second inning. A leisurely stroll to second base by Capps caused the pitcher to balk — allowing Simpson to score to give Pineville a 6-5 lead.

Capps scored on a passed ball to increase the lead to two runs before a bases-loaded walk gave Coffman the green light to cross home plate and widen the margins to 8-5. An RBI single by Gent increased the lead to 9-5.

Simpson was hit by a pitch allowing Damon Wilson to score and balloon the lead to 10-5 at the end of the second.

The Wildcats narrowed the deficit to four runs when Eric Mitchell hit an RBI double to cut the lead to 10-6 heading into the bottom half of the third.

Pineville continued racking up runs in the third. Coffman scored to increase the lead to 11-6. An RBI single by Gent gave the Lions a 12-6 lead. Two batters were hit back-to-back while the bases were loaded to balloon the Pineville lead to 14-6. Ethan Fields scored on a balk to increase the lead to 15-6 after three.

After a quick at-bat for the Wildcats, the Lions secured the game in the bottom half of the fourth. Pineville scored nine runs in the fourth and held Lynn Camp scoreless in the top of the fifth to earn the 18-run victory.

Up Next

Pineville (5-13) returns to action at 11 a.m. on Saturday when they travel to Harlan (4-11).

Lynn Camp (2-9) is slated to travel to Oneida Baptist Institute (2-10) on Monday.

Reach Anthony Cloud at 606-302-9090 or on Twitter @AnthonyCloudMDN