By JOE MATHIS

Contributing Writer

It wasn’t ideal baseball weather but it’s rarely been that way all spring.

So when the rain showers stopped and the sun came out Wednesday, Boyle County — who had played only two games the entire season — knew they needed to take advantage of an opportunity to play.

Despite an eight day layoff from their last game, when they beat Somerset 17-7 on March 27, the Rebel bats stayed hot, scoring 32 runs in two games in a double header sweep of Thornton Fractional North High School from Calumet City, Illinois.

In game one, the Rebels jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after Hunter Mason led off the game with a single, Ty Dragan tripled him home two batters later, then Alex Sergent singled home Dragan.

The game remained scoreless until the top of the fifth when Thornton Fractional’s Christian Ransom led off the inning with a double, moved to third on a wild pitch, then scored on a Ceddrick Richardson ground out.

But it didn’t take long for a 1-run game to turn into a 10-run rule win for Boyle.

After Karson Thompson led off the bottom of the fifth with a single and Tevin Leigh walked, Hunter Mason hit a sharp ground ball right back to the pitcher but what looked like a sure force out at third — if not a double play — the throw was airmailed over the third baseman’s head, sailing down the left field line. Thompson scored, which set the wheels in motion for a Boyle County blowout.

Grant Hotchkiss would follow the error with a two run double, and after an intentional walk to Dragan and a Sergent hit by pitch, Tristen Helton singled in two more runs. 

Sam Tiller then singled and Kevin Hatfield was hit by a pitch, loading the bases for Thompson, who became the 10th man to hit in the inning.

After a wild pitch scored Helton to make it 9-1, Thompson then singled in Tiller to make it 10-1, then Tevin Leigh singled in Hatfield to polish off the Rebels 11-1 win.

Tiller got the win on the mound for Boyle, his second of the season, going five innings, giving up one earned run and striking out seven while Hotchkiss, Helton and Leigh each drove in multiple runs for the Rebels.

But as good as the Rebels offense was in game one it were even better in game two.

Boyle struck early and by the time the first inning was in the books, the Rebels scored four runs on only one hit after two Thornton Fractional errors, two wild pitches and a passed ball.

It was more of the same in the second inning.

Freshman Catcher Jackson Breise reached on an error to begin the second inning which set the wheels in motion for another inning full of Rebel runs. 13 men came to the plate in an eight run second inning and by the time the third inning rolled around, Boyle Coach Kyle Wynn had brought in younger players to give his varsity guys the rest of the day off with the Rebels up 12-0.

“It was good we got a lot of guys a chance to play. With districts starting next week the more guys we can get in and get their feet wet is good,” Wynn said.

Boyle County did just that. The Rebels played 19 different players in the second game of the double header, 11 of them got hits and 13 of them drove in runs in what ended up being a 21-0 win.

Sophomore Blake Sammons got the win for Boyle County on the mound, going four innings, walking one and striking out six while Senior Isaac Holderman polished off the win striking out two in his only inning of work.

Boyle County will take their hot offense (they’ve scored 49 runs in their past 3 games) on the road today versus Western Hills, a team that gave Boyle their only loss this season, 1-0 on March 23.