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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

BIRMINGHAM – The Shelby County Wildcats may have lost their three-game win streak a few days earlier against Westbrook Christian, but they quickly got back to winning ways with a big offensive day at The Altamont School.

Shelby County defeated the Altamont Knights 13-2 on Wednesday, Feb. 26 to improve to 5-3 on the season while scoring double-digit runs for the third time in the last five games.

The Wildcats wasted little time taking the lead as Colby Matherson and Cale Blevins came home with one out in the top of the first thanks to a Hunter King line-drive single to open up a 2-0 lead.

Both teams settled into a defensive groove in the second and third innings as they stranded multiple baserunners over the pair of innings, leaving the Wildcats in front and in position to capitalize.

Shelby County used the first two pitches of the fourth inning to get two baserunners. Skylar Smith reached on a walk from the third baseman before Ethan Hall perfectly placed a bunt along the third base line to both advance the runner and reach base.

A Campbell Aderholt sacrifice bunt advanced both runners into scoring position, and Busby then drew a walk to load up the bases for Matherson. He sent a ground ball to short that led to an error and another run.

Cooper Pennington then got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to make the lead 4-0 at the end of the inning.

Neither side was able to get their lone baserunner home in the bottom of the fourth or the entirety of the fifth inning. However, that changed in the top of the sixth, when Ryan Sipes drew a lead-off walk before back-to-back singles from Matherson and Pennington.

That kicked off three-straight scoring plays as Shepherd Grayson pinch hit for Blevins and got a run off a ground out before King got his second RBI single of the game.

The Wildcats weren’t done adding to the 7-0 lead. Nate Byrne singled to load up the bases for Smith, who earned his team’s second RBI ground out of the inning. Hunter Dailey closed out the inning’s offense with a pinch-hit RBI single as the lead grew to 9-0.

However, Altamont got on the board in the bottom of the frame. After a lead-off single and stolen base, the Knights scored the runner off an RBI single for the opening run. The hosts added a second RBI single two batters later to cut the deficit to 9-2.

Sipes ended the scoring threat with back-to-back strikeouts to bring his team back to the plate.

From there, the first five Shelby County batters reached base to start the seventh, including a run off an error during Pennington’s at-bat and a Presley Duke RBI single.

While the next batter struck out for the first out of the inning, the Wildcats played small ball again with a run off a sacrifice fly and followed it up by capitalizing on a passed ball for the final run.

That capped off an 11-run win for Shelby County as its late offense led to its fifth win of the season.

King led the offense with a 3-for-4 game with three RBI off two run-scoring hits. Matherson went 2-for-5 with three runs and an RBI while Smith finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run.

Tucker Busby got the win with three strikeouts in four shutout innings while surrendering just two hits and three walks. Sipes got four strikeouts in two innings of relief as he worked around the lone earned run for the Wildcats.

Shelby County will have its next game on Friday, Feb. 28 at Shelby County High School against Priceville, and that matchup is set for a 2:45 p.m. start.