Dusters rout Generals

On Wednesday night, the Marshall County Dusters (10-2-1) notched their fifth straight victory when they traveled to Williamson County and defeated the Franklin Generals 13-2 in five innings at Jim Warren Park in the first game of a doubleheader.

Marshall County finished with a modest six hits against two Franklin pitchers, but showed patience at the plate and drew 10 walks. The Generals also hurt their pitching staff's cause by committing seven errors, which contributed to seven of the Dusters' 13 runs.

J.B. Reese led Marshall County's offensive attack by going 2-for-3 with a walk, a triple, 2 RBI, and a run scored. Matt Sharp (1 RBI), Aaron Thomason (2 RBI), Brandon Bush (1 RBI), and Bubba Houghton each had one hit for the Dusters as well.

Marshall County starting pitcher Cody Vernon picked up the victory after allowing two unearned runs on three hits over two and two-thirds innings to go along with three strikeouts. Thomason then came on in relief of Vernon and yielded just one walk in two and one-third innings of work while fanning four Franklin batters.

"We did what we were supposed to do when they made mistakes. We swung the bats well and both our pitchers threw well," said Duster coach Mike Reese. "The score was not indicative of the type of team we played because they have players from high school teams in this area. We jumped on them early and I think that was the key."

Marshall County buried the Generals early, as they crossed home plate six times in the top of the first inning thanks to a pair of singles from Sharp and Bush, a Jesse Kilpatrick walk, a two-run triple by J.B. Reese, a Grayson Wiles RBI groundout, two Franklin errors, and two wild pitches to take a 6-0 lead.

Vernon worked around a two base error in the bottom of the first before the Dusters opened up a 9-0 advantage in the top of the second inning on a Thomason two-run single and a RBI fielder's choice by Vernon.

The Generals got on the board in the board in the bottom of the third and tallied two runs in the frame on an error, two singles, and a passed ball to trim the deficit to 9-2.

In the top of the fourth inning, Marshall County plated a run without the benefit of a hit to stretch their lead to 10-2. Bush struck out to start the inning, but reached first base on a passed ball. After advancing to second on a Franklin error, courtesy runner Ryan McDaniel moved to third on a passed ball prior to scoring on a wild pitch.

The Dusters then brought the mercy rule into effect in the fifth by plating three runs in the frame behind a hit batsman, a walk by Ryan Richardson, a Sharp RBI fielder's choice, two General errors, and a sacrifice fly by Bush to cap their 13-2 triumph.