Cardinals edge Sullivan

SULLIVAN -- Bloomfield's Ben Montgomery (left) tries to jump up and catch a high throw during an attempted steal by Sullivan's Justin Dugan (15). Travis Bowlen (right) is backing up the play. (By Travis David/Greene County Daily World). [Order this photo]

SULLIVAN -- The Bloomfield baseball team improved to 4-3 on the season with a 4-3 win over Sullivan at Sportland Field Tuesday evening in a non-conference contest.

"It's always good to get a win against a bigger school," Cardinals head coach Mark Bartlow said of beating the Class 3A Golden Arrows.

The Cardinals pushed across three runs in the top of the third inning to break a 1-1 tie and withstood a late rally by the Golden Arrows.

"I was glad to see the kids keep their heads in the game there in the fifth inning when the game became closer," Bartlow said.

Sullivan had trimmed the deficit to one run in the home half of the fifth inning and still had the bases loaded with only one out. Cardinal ace, Cody Pearson then recorded a strikeout for the second out, before getting out of the inning with the lead by inducing a harmless grounder to second base.

Bloomfield recorded six hits in the contest, but only one coming in the decisive three-run third inning.

After falling behind in the count no balls and two strikes, Travis Bowlen was plunked in the ribs by a pitch from Sullivan hurler, Jake Smith. Payton Karl then painted the left-field line with a double, moving Bowlen to third. Bowlen would then be plated on a wild pitch from Smith to make the score 2-1.

A one-out walk to Jon Sachtjen gave the Cardinals runners at the corners. Sachtjen then stole second, and Karl scored from third on the throwing error from Sullivan catcher Holden Fuderich, to push the lead to 3-1. The final Cardinal run would be scored on a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by Trevor Vaught, scoring Sachtjen from third and moving Ryan Montgomery to second, who had reached via base on balls.

Bloomfield used home runs in their last outing to defeat Shoals, but proved they are more than capable of manufacturing runs as well.

"We are a aggressive team," Bartlow said. "We are going to take advantage of our team speed and we have good hitting and smart base running."

After Sullivan took a 1-0 lead in the first inning the Cardinals knotted the contest with a single tally in the top of the second inning.

Montgomery started the inning off with a ringing single up the middle that nearly knocked the cap off of Smith. Vaught then moved him over to second with a sacrifice bunt. Montgomery would take third on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out bloop single over first base by Bryce Helms.

Pearson earned the win on the hill with a complete game. He fanned 14 batters, walked just two and allowed the three runs on five hits.

"Cody pitched another good game tonight," Bartlow said. "He was very consistent with his pitches and he also recorded two hits at the plate at well."

The Cardinals will be back in action Thursday when they travel to Vincennes Rivet at 5 p.m.

Bloomfield 013 000 0 -- 4 6 4

Sullivan 100 020 0 -- 3 5 3

Pearson and R. Montgomery; Smith, Jones (5) and Shorter and Hammerbacher (5). W -- Pearson. L -- Smith. 2B -- R. Montgomery (B), Clements (S), Nash (S).