The Elks (5-1, 4-1) maintained sole possession of first place in the Marshall County Babe Ruth standings after defeating A-Plus Collision Center 7-5 in six innings on Monday night to record their third straight victory.

Having lost to APCC 8-4 in the previous encounter May 23, the Elks built a 7-3 lead through the first five innings of play before staving off a A-Plus Collision Center rally attempt in the top of the sixth to avenge their lone defeat of the season.

Aid from errors

Although the Elks finished with a modest six hits against two APPC pitchers, they took advantage of five walks and four A-Plus Collision errors, which led to four of their seven runs.

First baseman Will Johnson led the Elks at the plate by going 2-for-3 with 2 RBI, while Jay Lyons (1 RBI), Wilson Limbaugh, starting pitcher J.D. Crabtree, and Austin Wood each had one hit.

Crabtree also picked up the victory on the mound and allowed two runs in three and a third innings on two hits and four walks to go along with five strikeouts. Lyons then came on in relief of Crabtree and yielded three runs over two and two-third innings on four hits and a walk.

Lucas Welch (1 RBI), Tristan Underwood (1 RBI), Brayden Gentry (1 RBI), Brett McGehee, Ethan Evans, and starting pitcher Bryce Wunderlin each notched one hit for APCC (2-4, 1-4). Wunderlin suffered the loss on the mound after giving up four runs in three innings of work on three hits and four walks.

Close contest

The Elks grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Limbaugh raced home on a sacrifice fly by Ben Taylor after drawing a leadoff walk and advancing to third on an errant pickoff throw.

A-Plus Collision Center quickly tied the game at 1-1 by plating a run in the top of the second with the help of a leadoff walk by Evans and two Elk errors.

In the bottom of the second, the Elks pushed across a run to pull back ahead 2-1. After leading off the frame with a single, Wood advanced to third on a Lyons sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch before scoring on a RBI fielder's choice by Nathan Thomason.

APCC then left the bases loaded in the top of the third before the Elks tallied two runs in the bottom half of the frame on the strength of a Crabtree walk, an error, and a pair of RBI singles by Johnson and Lyons to extend their lead to 4-1.

Can't catch up

A-Plus Collision Center scored a run in the top of the fourth thanks to a couple of walks by Welch and Jamario Ridley, a balk, and an error to trim the deficit to 4-2, but the Elks notched a run in the bottom half of the frame on a RBI infield single by Johnson to open up a 5-2 advantage.

After APCC tallied a run in the top of the fifth with the aid of two singles from Wunderlin and Evans and an error to close the gap to 5-3, the Elks plated two runs in the bottom of the inning behind a Lyons walk, a Limbaugh single, and two errors to stretch their lead to 7-3.

A-Plus Collision Center whittled the deficit to 7-5 in the top of the sixth on the strength of RBI singles from Wunderlin and Welch and had runners on first and second with two outs, but Lyons retired the next APCC batter on a groundout before the game's time limit expired.