MARLIN — Hayden Heselmeyer and Ty Mathews drove in three runs each, and the Thrall Tigers (15-5-1) scored 10 runs in the first inning and cruised to an 18-4 win over the Chilton Pirates (0-12, 0-8) Thursday night in Marlin. The win, the Tigers’ seventh in a row, keeps Thrall atop the District 27-2A standings with a perfect 8-0 record at the midway point of the season.
The first inning was really all the Tigers needed. Thrall sent 14 batters to the plate and tallied 10 runs to take control early. Heselmeyer picked up all of his RBIs in the first inning. He knocked in his first run on a single in his first trip to the plate, and later in the inning drove in a pair of runs with a double to centerfield.
A pair of Chilton errors and a Carson Ball single in the second made the score 12-0 after two innings. And, in the third, three consecutive doubles by Jack Gustafson, Heselmeyer, and Payton Pipkin pushed the lead to 14-0.
Errors continued to plague the Pirates into the fifth inning when the Tigers took advantage of three Chilton mistakes and added their final four runs of the game. Thrall needed just two hits in the fifth but used the errors, a pair of walks, and a hit batter to stretch its lead. The Pirates did manage to get on the board in the bottom half of the fifth off a pair of hits and two walks by the Tigers.
Heselmeyer finished the night with three hits in four trips to the plate, while Maverick McAllister also knocked out a trio of hits. In addition to Heselmeyer and Mathews’ RBIs, Ball, Pipkin, and Gustafson also drove in a pair of runs each. On the mound, the Tigers used five pitchers for a combined two-hitter with 11 strikeouts between them. Thrall will be back in action Tuesday as they begin the second half of district play at Milano. The Tigers edged the Eagles 3-2 in their first meeting.
