After watching fellow pitcher Jody Sullivan toss a two-hit shutout the previous day, sophomore hurler David Looney managed to one up his teammate on Wednesday afternoon when he tossed a no-hitter to help lead the Cornersville Bulldogs to a 12-0 road win over the Hampshire Hawks in five innings.

Looney mowed down Hampshire's lineup with relative ease and piled up 10 strikeouts in five innings of work while yielding three walks en route to throwing the first no-hitter of his CHS career.

'Feels great'

"It feels great to finally throw one in high school. I started getting a little nervous with two outs in the bottom of the fifth because they were back at the top of their lineup. Their leadoff hitter almost got me in the first inning with a bunt," said Looney. "I mainly kept my fastball at the knees. My coaches have told me that if I kept my fastball at the knees I'm untouchable. I was able to keep the ball down today."

The Bulldogs (8-2, 6-0 District) gave Looney plenty of offensive support, as they pounded out 14 hits and drew three walks against two Hawk pitchers to go along with four Hampshire errors.

Tate Lowery (2 RBI) and Neil Davis (1 RBI) both tallied three hits to lead Cornersville at the plate, while Cody Blackburn (3 RBI), Jacob Griffis (1 RBI), and Aaron Fox (1 RBI) notched two hits apiece. Zach Richards (1 RBI) and Tyler Lowery each had one hit for the Bulldogs as well.

Hits fly

"Top to bottom that was one of our better hitting performances this season," said CHS coach Ben Putman. "With as few pitchers as we have, it's important for us to get to the 10 run rule in order to save some of our arms. It's especially important this week because we play six games in a span of five days."

Hawk starting pitcher Chris Cousino suffered the loss, allowing nine runs over three and a third innings on eight hits and three walks.

Cornersville grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Tyler Lowery raced home on a sacrifice fly by Blackburn after drawing a leadoff walk and advancing to third on a single by Tate Lowery.

The Bulldogs took advantage of some shoddy defense by Hampshire in the second inning, as they plated three runs in the frame with the help of a hit batsman, two walks, two Hawk errors, and a double steal to make it 4-0.

Threat halted

Hampshire (1-6, 0-3 District) had a chance to get on the board in the bottom of the third when they put runners on first and second with two outs thanks to a Cousino walk and a hit batsman, but Looney retired Shawn Blalock on a groundout to snuff out the threat.

CHS began to pour it on in the top of the fifth and crossed home plate six times in the frame on the strength of a two-run single from Tate Lowery and RBI singles from Blackburn, Davis, Richards, and Fox to stretch their lead to 10-0.

In the top of the fifth, the Bulldogs hung up another crooked number and tacked on two more runs to forge a 12-0 advantage. After Tate Lowery singled to lead off the inning, Blackburn belted a RBI triple to deep centerfield before scoring on a RBI groundout by Griffis.

Looney then retired Hampshire in order in the bottom of the fifth to record Cornersville's fourth shutout of the season.