Prep Baseball: Harrisburg knocks off Herrin

Austin Hefner took one for the team and it paid off.

The Harrisburg sophomore was hit in the back by a pitch in the top of the seventh, with the bases load, allowing the lone run to score for the Bulldogs in a 1-0 win over Herrin Monday.

With the win, the Bulldogs improve to 14-11 overall and are now 3-5 in the SIRR Ohio.

Sykes Thompson improved to 4-2 on the mound as the senior right hander went the distance, striking out six, while scattering just two hits.

Harrisburg had just four hits on the day, despite leaving the bases loaded four times against the Tigers.

Sykes Thompson, Cooper Thompson, Bryce Emery and Aaron Johnson all had a hit.

Harrisburg is scheduled to return to action today (Tuesday) at home against Massac County and will host Shawnee on Wednesday. The Bulldogs travel to Eldorado Thursday for a 4:30 p.m. against their cross-country rival and will travel to Carbondale on Friday.

West Frankfort 5, Carrier Mills 3

An eight-day layoff didn't help the Carrier Mills-Stonefort baseball team as they fell to West Frankfort 5-3 Monday.

CMSF head coach Allen Jackson said defense didn't help out his Wildcats' cause either.

"Loren Whiting pitched well enough to win, but the walks hurt us and we stranded eight runners and missed some opportunities, especially in the sixth and seventh innings."

Whiting took the loss for the Wildcats, while Darren Betz belted his 12th home run on the year, clearing the bases in the third inning, scoring Dylan Schwartz and Anthony Kalodner for CMSF only runs of the game.

West Frankfort took advantage of two errors in the second inning to score four runs and tacked on an insurance run in the top of the fourth inning.