The Cornersville Bulldogs (13-13) put on a good show for their fellow classmates on Thursday afternoon when they defeated the Eagleville Eagles 7-4 at home in front of the CHS student body.

Cornersville trailed 2-0 at the end of the first inning, but outscored the Eagles 7-1 over the next four frames to take a 7-3 lead before staving off a late Eagleville rally attempt.

The Bulldogs finished with seven hits against five Eagle pitchers, but also took advantage of five walks and three Eagleville errors.

Hot hitter

Cornersville catcher Cody Blackburn recorded his second straight multi-hit game by going 3-for-3 with a walk, a triple, and 2 RBI, while Tate Lowery added two hits and two runs scored. Tyler Lowery and Zach Richards both tallied a hit and a RBI for the Bulldogs as well.

"Cody is starting to heat up at the right time. I know he hasn't been happy with the way he's been hitting this season, but this is a good time to come out of it," said CHS coach Ben Putman.

Cornersville starting pitcher Jody Sullivan turned in a solid performance on the mound to earn his fourth victory of the year, as he allowed three runs in six innings of work on six hits and three walks while recording seven strikeouts. Blackburn then came on in relief of Sullivan and yielded one run on three hits and a walk in the seventh inning.

Darin Knox notched three hits and a RBI to lead Eagleville (10-17-1) at the plate, while Chris Tompkins registered two hits and a RBI. Eagle relief pitcher Weston Burris suffered the loss, allowing one run on two walks over one inning.

Early deficit

Eagleville grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Knox scored on a RBI double by Tompkins after drawing a leadoff walk.

The Eagles opened up a 2-0 advantage in the second inning on a RBI fielder's choice by Joshua McCrary before loading the bases with one out, but Sullivan induced Brandon Kelley to hit into a 3-2-3 double play to minimize the damage.

Cornersville got their offense going in the bottom of the third inning and pushed across two runs in the frame to tie the game at 2-2. After Aaron Fox reached base on an error, Tate Lowery legged out an infield single to put men on first and second with two outs, before Blackburn belted a two-run triple to deep centerfield.

Bulldogs pull ahead

In the bottom of the fourth, the Bulldogs tallied a run without the benefit of a hit to seize a 3-2 advantage. Following consecutive walks by Jacob Griffis and Richards, both runners moved up 90 feet on a Sullivan groundout, before Griffis sprinted home on a sacrifice fly by Fox.

After Eagleville left two men in scoring position in the top of the fifth, CHS plated three runs in the bottom half of the frame on the strength of singles from Tate Lowery and Blackburn, an Eagle throwing error, a Neil Davis walk, a wild pitch, a sacrifice fly by Griffis, and a Richards RBI single to open up a 6-2 advantage.

Eagleville trimmed the deficit to 6-3 in the top of the sixth on a RBI single by Knox, but the Bulldogs tallied a run in the bottom half of frame with the help of an error, a wild pitch, and a RBI single by Tyler Lowery to stretch their lead to 7-3.

The Eagles narrowed the gap to 7-4 in the top of the seventh on a RBI single by Tyler Vandergriff, before loading the bases with two outs thanks to a Clayton Kennedy bloop single and a walk by A.J. Garza.

Blackburn, however, bore down and struck out Joshua McCrary to secure the Bulldogs' second straight win over Eagleville.