Bobcats' coast past rival Colts with offense leading way

CAMBRIDGE — Strong pitching has been the catalyst all season behind the Cambridge Bobcats 7-1 start to the season entering Friday's second matchup with Guernsey County rival Meadowbrook at Don Coss Stadium.

Now it looks like the Bobcats' offense might be poised to start making a major contribution as well.

Cambridge put up crooked numbers for a second consecutive game, coasting to a 15-2 five inning victory over the Colts to improve to 8-1 on the season.

Included in the Bobcats strong offensive showing was an eight run second inning eruption that jumpstarted the victory.

On Thursday, the Bobcats exploded for an 11-1 Buckeye 8 Conference win over Warren, for an impressive two game total of 26 runs to set the tone for the last two victories.

"After our game with Harrison Central on Wednesday, we talked about attacking our pitch," CHS head coach Jamaal Lowery said. "We have been letting pitchers control what we do, and that's not us. So once we started correcting that, and got back to attacking the baseball. We have really started to hit the baseball, which is great to see."

New mindset pays off for Bobcats hitters

Cambridge had sort of struggled with the bats in the early going, but the Bobcats' strong pitching had been leading the charge.

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"Hitting is a mindset, it's contagious," Lowery added. "Once somebody starts hitting the ball well, everybody starts hitting. Our one through nine in our lineup hit well tonight, and then even the guys who came in later to pinch hit put the ball in play.

"We saw a pretty good arm at Warren last night, and saw a decent arm today as well. When we hit the ball, start picking up some extra base hits then we can be lethal on the base paths. Like I said, it can be very contagious and it was really fun to watch tonight."

Sophomore Mason Gregg turned in a 2-for-2 effort with a pair of singles to go with three RBIs, while senior Regan Rogers ripped an RBI double and scored three runs. Senior Keaton Kyser collected a base hit with an RBI and also scored three runs. Senior Bradyn Gregg, sophomore Dawson Geese, juniors Rylee Wilson and Konnor McIntire each finished with RBI singles for the Bobcats.

And that strong pitching the Bobcats have been getting, it showed up again as well with Mason Gregg putting together another strong effort on the mound.

"You know, Mason is just Mason," Lowery joked. "He just takes the ball, and does what he does. Mason just throws strikes, he's going to pound the zone. Even when he starts to feel like he's losing it, he such a mentally tough kid. He just regroups and come back stronger the next inning."

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Gregg picked up the win for Cambridge, giving up six hits and one earned run in the game while striking out five.

Meadowbrook suffers disappointing night

Meadowbrook head coach Sam Fondriest felt his Colts were making progress, and were coming off a strong showing Thursday night, giving a strong Sheridan all they wanted before finally dropping a hard fought 2-1 decision.

Add to that momentum, the Colts (2-8) played the rival Bobcats tough during their first meeting of the season with a hard fought 6-0 setback. In which, Cambridge needed to pull away late to take the victory.

"We played a great game yesterday, took a very good Sheridan team to the wire," Fondriest said. "And I was happy with the signs of improvement I saw in that game. And then we came out today and were totally flat, just didn't have it from the get go."

"We didn't do anything well today," Fondriest added. "We walked too many batters, we didn't make routine plays with too many errors and didn't hit it very well either. I was hoping with the way we played last night, the way we played them tough the first time. And it being a rivalry game, we would come out ready to play. But that was not the case tonight."

Meadowbrook finished with five hits, led by Devin Wells with a double, single while James Armentrout contributed an RBI base hit. Braylon Lowery, Kade Winnett, and Cohen Miles each singled for the Colts.

KSutton1@gannett.com; X: @KSuttonDJSports; Instagram: kevinsutton_dailyjeffsports

This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Bobcats improve to 8-1 with offense started to get cranked up