By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Basketball has the sixth man. From the profession ranks to the high school level, football teams’ fan base fight to be known as the best 12th man. In the game of baseball, the 10th man is not a term normally used. At Munford High School, Cougars Head Coach Scotty Yount has a formula for success that involves players coming out of the dugout to give a boost. The player setting that standard and tempo is Dylan Hatcher. “We have a senior and his name is Dylan Hatcher,” Yount said. “Every time he gets into the game he seems to make something happen. It’s always a hustle play. And hustle plays are contiguous. That’s what happened tonight. He made a hustle play for us while he’s learning how to execute and handle the bat. He made a hustle play and we went from there.” Hatcher sparked Munford Friday night at Cougar Field to a 15-5 victory over the Greenland (Ark.) Pirates in sixth inning as part of the Best of the West Tournament. “It was nice to see our bats come to life because it was sloppy,” Yount said. “Defensively we haven’t been sloppy. We’ve been really solid defensively. We got sloppy and I brought some guys off the bench. I said, ‘We need some energy.’ I’ve been telling them it’s going to take everybody all year at different points and times. “You’ve just got to be ready,” he added. “We unloaded some guys off the bench tonight and they gave us some energy and got us going. All of sudden it just changed the momentum of the whole game after it didn’t look so good.” The team victory improved Munford to 6-4 after two weeks of action. The Cougars were nursing a 2-1 advantage after three innings. Kade Reed was on the mound neutralizing the Pirate lineup allowing the Cougars to build a bigger advantage. Munford put a four-spot on the scoreboard in the fourth inning with Chris Swords driving in a run with a single. Then Shane Cox struck a big blow leading to a Greenland error scoring three Cougar runners. The Cougars’ 6-1 lead was trimmed to 6-4 after the Pirates scored three runs in the fifth inning. Munford seized some momentum back in the fifth inning with TJ Tyus driving in a run with base hit. Then it was the spark plug Hatcher’s turn at the plate. The senior delivered with a single to score a pair of Cougars to make the score 9-4. In the top of the sixth Greenland managed a run to make the tally 9-5. Then it was Munford’s turn back at the plate. The Cougars placed 6 runs on the board to end the game. Munford received RBIs from Carson Newman with a bunt single and Hunter Reed with a two run double. After Michael Perry made the scoreboard read 13-5, Kade Reed stroked a hit leading to the 14th run. And the final RBI came courtesy of Shane Cox with a sacrifice fly. Yount said the final four innings of the night lived up to the team’s motto of “Good” which means coming together to erase the bad.
“It’s good to struggle early,” he concluded. “That’s why I scheduled 6 games last week and 6 games this week. I wanted us to struggle so we can get it out the way. Everything can’t be easy. We build for the end.”
