Summertown handed the Middle Tennessee Mudcats their lone loss at the Southern Athletic Fields Invitational on Saturday afternoon, as the Eagles claimed a 7-0 victory in five innings at Columbia Central High School.

The Mudcats had averaged nine runs per game in their first three contests of the tourney, but saw their bats go silent against Summertown starting pitcher Timmy Beard, who limited Middle Tennessee to three hits and a walk in five scoreless innings of work to earn the victory.

Bryce Oliver went 2-for-3 with a double to pace the Mudcats at the plate, while Kennedy Mathis added a single.

Errors hurt

The Eagles finished with seven hits against two Middle Tennessee pitchers, but were also aided by two hit batsmen and four Mudcat errors, which contributed to four of Summertown's seven runs.

Bryce Giles and Nathaniel Morrison both tallied two hits, a RBI, and a run scored to lead Summertown's offensive attack, while Beard added a RBI double.

Middle Tennessee starting pitcher Tanner Garvin suffered the loss after yielding seven runs, three earned, over four and a third innings.

The Eagles stranded a runner at third in the top of the first inning, but took advantage of some shaky defense by the Mudcats in the second and pushed across three runs in the frame with the help of a hit batsman, two Middle Tennessee errors, and a RBI single by Giles to take a 3-0 lead.

Another chance

After leaving a runner in scoring position in the bottom of the second, the Mudcats had another chance to cut into the deficit in the third inning when they put men on first and second with no outs thanks to a Mathis single and a hit batsman.

Middle Tennessee ended up coming away empty handed once again, as Beard retired the next Mudcat batter on a fielder's choice before inducing Ryan Yelensky to hit into a 4-3 double play to escape the inning unscathed.

Summertown then tallied a run in the top of the fourth on a RBI double by Beard to open up a 4-0 advantage prior to crossing home plate three more times in the fifth inning on the strength of a pair of singles by Giles and Luke Scott, a Konnor Ambrose sacrifice fly, a RBI infield single by Morrison, a Mudcat error, and a Curt Ambrose RBI groundout to stretch their lead to 7-0.

In the bottom of the fifth, Beard worked around a one-out single by Oliver to keep the mercy rule in effect.