Having defeated Putnam County 8-4 in the first round two days earlier, the Marshall County Thunder fell into the loser's bracket of the 15-year old Babe Ruth State tournament when they dropped an 11-3 decision to the Lebanon Lions on Sunday afternoon at Lawrence County High School.

Marshall County trailed just 2-1 through the first four innings of play, but things quickly went awry for the Thunder after that point, as Lebanon crossed home plate nine times over the final three frames to pull away for the eight-run victory.

Hitting spree

Bolstered by their late surge, the Lions pounded out 16 hits against three Marshall County pitchers. The Thunder also hindered their pitching staff's efforts by committing five errors, which contributed to six of Lebanon's 11 runs.

Chase Andrews spearheaded the Lions' offensive attack by going 4-for-5 with a double, 3 RBI, and two runs scored. Andy Empey (2 RBI) and Daniel Dillard tallied three hits apiece for Lebanon as well, while starting hurler Sam McMillen added two hits and 3 RBI.

Marshall County starting pitcher Ethan Poteete suffered the loss and yielded four runs in four and a third innings of work on eight hits to go along with five strikeouts.

The Thunder finished with nine hits and three walks against McMillen, but hit into two double plays and had two other runners thrown out on the base paths. Poteete (2 RBI) and Madison Peete each tallied two hits to pace Marshall County at the plate, while Wilson Limbaugh, Payton Hood, Derrick McKnight, J.D. Crabtree, and Josh McKnight all had one hit.

Scoreless start

Poteete held the Lions scoreless through the first two innings of play thanks to a pair of double plays before the Thunder put runners on first and second with two outs in the bottom of the second on a Derrick McKnight single and a walk by Crabtree. Josh McKnight then hit a bloop single into right field, but second baseman Chase Andrews gunned down Derrick McKnight at home plate to end the inning.

In the top of the third, Lebanon broke the scoreless stalemate by crossing home plate twice in the frame with the help of a bloop single by Mike McDowell, an Austin Graves bunt single, an error, and a two-run single by Andrews to seize a 2-0 lead.

The Thunder left runners on the corners in the bottom of the third, but plated a run in the fourth inning with the aid of a leadoff walk by Derrick McKnight and two Lion throwing errors to narrow the gap to 2-1.

Lebanon quickly regained the momentum and pushed across three runs in the top of the fifth on RBI singles by Andrews, Empey, and JaKeese Turner to open up a 5-1 advantage.

Marshall County trimmed the deficit to 5-2 in the bottom of the fifth on a RBI double by Poteete, but the Lions put the game out of reach in the top of the sixth by crossing home plate five times in the inning on the strength of three errors, a single by Dillard, a McMillen two-run single, a two-run triple by Reese Fudge, and Empey RBI single to forge a 10-2 lead.

Lebanon then tacked on another run in the top of the seventh on a RBI single by McMillen to make it 11-2 before the Thunder notched a run in the seventh thanks to a Poteete RBI single for the 11-3 final.