MONTICELLO-The Columbia Wildcats defeated the Lawrence County Cougars 8-5 in Division 7-4A high school baseball action Thursday night, at Jimmie Davis Park. With the victory, Columbia completed a 2-game sweep of the Cougars. Columbia won a 4-3 contest in Columbia on Tuesday.

With the win, Columbia improved to 10-6 overall, and 5-1 in Division 7-4A play. Lawrence County fell to 11-4 overall, and 4-2 in the division.

“I thought our guys played their hearts out this week,” said first-year Lawrence County coach Josh Garrett, “but all we got to show for it was two losses. That’s a credit to Columbia. They’ve got a fine veteran team.”

After 5 innings, the score was tied at 3-3. Columbia scored 5 runs in its final two at-bats to claim the win. In the top of the sixth, a leadoff walk, a double by Wildcat catcher Ethan Sills, and 2 sacrifice bunts added up to 2 runs. In the seventh, after 2 bunt singles and a sacrifice bunt, Columbia second baseman Donte’ Peters laced a double into the left field corner to seal the Wildcat win.

Columbia got two 2-out, run-scoring hits in the top of the first to grab a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the first, however, Lawrence County responded with 3. Kasey Durr led off with a double to left. After a walk to Kody Smith, sophomore right fielder Marcus Atterberry launched a 3-run homer.

Columbia tied the game in the top of the third, on a solo homerun by center fielder Bryson Medious. Medious and Sills each had 3 hits to power the Wildcat attack.

Columbia’s senior left-hander Parker Dungan worked 7 solid innings. He gave up 7 hits and struck out 8. After the 3-run first, Dungan shut Lawrence County out over the final 6 innings.

LCHS sophomore Kasey Durr matched Dungan pitch-for-pitch through 5 innings. In that span, he limited the potent and speedy Columbia lineup to 3 runs on 4 hits. Joshua Stephens relieved Durr in the seventh, and got the final two outs.

Durr and second baseman Gabriel Lewis each had 2 hits for Lawrence County. Stephens, Smith, and Atterberry each had 1.

“I thought our guys competed really well,” said long-time LCHS assistant Craig Davis. “Sometimes, the final score isn’t indicative of the quality of the effort. We played as well, or better, in these two losses as we did in our recent winning streak.”

After taking on Vicksburg in non-division action on Saturday (see related article), Lawrence County returns to Division 7-4A play on Tuesday, hosting Purvis.