It was a great start to the season for the Lady Cats as they topped the Thomas Walker Lady Pioneers 14-8 at home on Monday in their season opener.

The Lady Cats opened with two straight strikeouts before walking two consecutive batters. With two outs and two runners on base, the Lady Cats committed an unforced error on an errant pass to first base that sailed over the first basemen’s head, allowing two Lady Pioneers to cross the plate early in the game. The Lady Bobcats quickly responded by retiring the inning on the next batter.

The Lady Cats answered in the bottom of the first with an in-the-park home run from Raegan Robbins, bringing the score to 2-1 in favor of the Lady Pioneers. The Lady Cats drove in two more runs in the inning to take a 3-2 lead into the second.

The Lady Cat defense held the first two Lady Pioneers in check, striking out the first and throwing out the second to open the second inning. However, with two more unforced errors in the inning from Bell County, Thomas Walker drove in four more runs, their best inning of the game, bringing the score to 6-3 heading to the bottom of the second.

The Lady Cats drove in three more runs in the bottom of the second, bringing the score to 6-6. Thomas Walker added two more runs in the top of the third inning and held the Lady Cats scoreless in the bottom of the inning to take a 8-6 lead into the fourth.

The Lady Cats drove in three more runs in the fourth to take a permanent lead at 9-8. Driving in five more runs in the fifth and sixth innings and holding the Lady Pioneers scoreless in the final three, the Lady Cats won their season opener by six runs.

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It was a tough start to the baseball season for the Bell County Bobcats on Monday afternoon, as they fell to Corbin on the road 16-1 in four innings.

“We just got beat, plain and simple,” said Bobcat coach Scott Chaney. “We are playing a much more competitive schedule this season. We have a lot of young players that hadn’t ever played at Corbin, and I think our nerves got to us a little bit.”

Totaling only one run on the afternoon, the Bobcats just couldn’t find a rhythm on the sticks.

“Opening the season on the road is tough,” said Chaney. “The atmosphere in a hostile environment makes it hard to get over those nerves. We had a few errors that we need to correct, but we hit the ball well, it just seemed to go right to them (Corbin) every time.”

“We just have to shake it off, and get back to work,” said Chaney. “We will just take it one day at a time and work as hard as we can to get better. I like our team. We have a lot of potential. I’m proud of the way we competed.”

The Bobcats took on the Williamsburg Yellow Jackets in their home-opener on Tuesday. Corbin faced off against Lincoln County Tuesday on the road.