By JOE MATHIS

Contributing Writer

Another game, another offensive explosion for Boyle County.

For the second-straight game, Boyle County piled up 14 hits as the Rebels moved to 2-0 in the 45th District with their second-straight win over Garrard County, 9-0.

But even though it was the Boyle bats that shined, it was Garrard County that posed the first threat of the game.

In the top of the first, Garrard County’s Connor McGuffey, Ashton Smith and Colin Carver all drew walks from Boyle County starting pitcher Tristen Helton.

With two outs, Helton struck out Isaac Lyons to end the threat. A night after Garrard left nine men on base against Boyle and head coach CJ Lynn preached about getting hits, the Golden Lions again struggled to get one when they needed one.

“When you take an early lead it always feels good but we just have to find that timely hit,” Lynn said.  “It’s going to come sooner or later”

Boyle County, however, continued to find the hits they needed.

The Rebels struck first in the bottom of the first after Grant Hotchkiss hit a one-out single then moved to second on a Ty Dragan walk. Hotchkiss would later advance to third on a wild pitch and Alex Sergent drove him in with a sacrifice fly to give the Rebels an early 1-0 lead.

“The two best things you can do is score first and extend the lead. It keeps the momentum on your side so that was good.” Wynn said.

Boyle County would later extend the lead but even if it hadn’t, that one run still would have been enough.

Helton whittled his way through Garrard’s lineup, striking out the side in second inning, then striking out another in the top of the third before the Rebel bats struck again.

Hotchkiss led off the bottom of the third with a double. One batter later, Dragan laced a double off the 365-foot sign in straight away center field to chase in Hotchkiss and make it 2-0.

Sergent would follow Dragan with an infield single, then Dragan and Sergent would both move up a base after a double steal.

Garrard County’s Colin Carver would retire the next two Rebels but with two outs, Kevin Hatfield hit a double to center field which plated Dragan and Sergent to stretch the Rebel lead to 4-0.

One inning later, Boyle would strike again in identical fashion to how Tuesday’s game started: On the first pitch of the bottom of the fourth, Rebel leadoff hitter Hunter Mason hit a fastball to left for a solo home run to make it 5-0.

As Helton continued to set down Garrard hitters, the Rebels kept scoring runs.

They added one more in the fifth inning when Kody Myers singled, Hatfield was hit by a pitch, Karson Thompson singled to load the bases then Hunter Mason hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Myers.

Helton again struck out the side in the sixth.

Then just like the third inning, Hotchkiss led off the bottom of the sixth with a double and Dragan followed behind him with a single. Sergent would drive in his second RBI of the game with a single to make it 7-0. Helton’s infield RBI single scored Dragan to make it 8-0, then Thompson capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly to center scoring Helton to make it 9-0.

Isaac Holderman polished off the Boyle win in the seventh, securing Boyle’s 9-0 win, moving their record to 6-1 and setting up two big district games next week versus Danville.

And while the offense, again, plated their fair share of runs, Wynn said Helton’s outing on the mound was encouraging.

“Typically he gets stronger toward the end of the game. I think he can come out fairly loose and it was good to see him work through that (three first inning walks) with some strikeouts early and I think he settled in for the rest of the game,” Wynn said.

Helton went six innings, giving up four hits, three walks, and striking out 10.

As for Garrard, Lynn says as long as they can get hits with their guys on base, they’ll be fine.

“We play defense like we did and we’ll be fine. I think our pitchers threw fine. We just have to hit the baseball, put it in play and get those timely hits with runners in scoring position,” Lynn said.

Garrard County is at home this weekend, playing a game Friday and two games Saturday as they host the Dickey Gilbert Wooden Bat Classic.

Boyle County travels to Marion County Friday to take on the Knights, a team that won 28 games last year and advanced to the state semifinals.