Having already clinched a spot in the 15-year old Babe Ruth State tournament, the Marshall County Thunder were forced to settle for second place in the District 8 tourney when they lost 12-2 to Lawrence County in five innings on Tuesday night at Sam Davis Park.

After defeating Marshall County 11-1 earlier in the tournament, Lawrence County once again silenced the Thunder's bats, as starting pitcher Bryce Clifft and reliever Colby Deuchelle combined to toss a one-hitter.

One-hitter

Clifft picked up the victory on the mound and allowed two runs in four plus innings of work on one hit and four walks while recording four strikeouts. Deuchelle then replaced Clifft on the hill and yielded one walk over one scoreless inning to go along with two strikeouts.

Starting hurler J.D. Crabtree singled to account for Marshall County's lone hit of the contest, while Nate Huitt drew two walks.

Crabtree also went the distance on the mound for the Thunder and allowed eight hits and seven walks over four and two-thirds innings.

Brock Vaughn and Jackson Ferguson both tallied two hits and an RBI to lead Lawrence County's offensive attack, while Lucas Ray added a triple and two RBI. Clifft (one RBI), Brody Howard, and Deuchelle notched one hit apiece for Lawrence County as well.

First blow

Lawrence County wasted little time getting on the board and pushed across a run in the bottom of the first inning thanks to a hit batsman, a Lucas Ray walk, and an RBI double by Clifft to take a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the second, Lawrence County opened up a 2-0 advantage when Deuchelle scored on a passed ball after reaching base on a bloop double and advancing to third on a passed ball.

Clifft worked around a leadoff walk to Huitt in the top of the third before Lawrence County plated three more runs in the bottom half of the frame with the help of a walk by Howard, a Vaughn single, a two-run triple by Ray, and a wild pitch to stretch their lead to 5-0.

Marshall scores

After Lawrence County tacked on another run in the bottom of the fourth on a Vaughn RBI single to make it 6-0, Marshall County tallied two runs in the top of the fifth to narrow the gap to 6-2. Following an infield single by Crabtree, Clifft issued walks to Bryce Wunderlin and Huitt to load the bases with no outs. Josh McKnight and Payton Hood then drew two more free passes to bring home Crabtree and Wunderlin.

The wheels came off for Marshall County in the bottom of the fifth, however, as Lawrence County brought the mercy rule into effect by crossing home plate six times in the inning on the strength of five walks, an infield single by Ferguson, a hit batsman, four wild pitches, a passed ball, two errors, and a Ferguson RBI single to wrap up their 12-2 victory.