Trojans strike early, shut down Raiders for 2-0 win

Published 10:17 pm Monday, April 14, 2025

By Jeff Nations

Barren County did a little damage, then spent the rest of the day effectively preventing host Warren East from doing the same in Monday’s District 15 baseball matchup.

The Trojans scored single runs in the first and second innings, and that proved plenty of support for Barren County starting pitcher Skylar Potter. The junior right-hander worked through six scoreless innings, inducing plenty of soft contact — and a couple loud outs — while scattering in a few strikeouts to provide his second quality start in a week for the Trojans. Last Tuesday, he worked five innings to earn a win against in-state rival Paul Laurence Dunbar at Baseball City in St. Petersburg, Florida, to help Barren County (8-6 overall, 1-0 District 15) have a successful spring break trip.

“I’ll be honest, we didn’t know what we were going to do coming into the year — who was going to be our No. 1, our No. 2 (starting pitchers) because Joey Meyers, the first baseman, he was supposed to be No. 1,” Barren County coach J.R. Estes said. “He broke his hand, so we’ve been looking for juniors to step up. Skylar has thrown lights-out for two games in a row, down in Florida and then tonight.”

Email newsletter signup

The Trojans jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on Axel Dysholm’s RBI double to center field to score Sutton Hyde, who started the rally with a two-out single off Raiders starting pitcher Brenden Bratcher.

Barren doubled its lead in the top of the second. Price Thompson led off the inning with a double to right field, then scored two outs later on an RBI single from No. 9 hitter Jordan Harris.

And that would do it for the scoring.

Warren East (3-9, 0-1) got two runners with two outs in the bottom of the second, but Potter showed off a nice pickoff move to nab the runner at second base for the inning-ending out.

Potter’s pickoff move came in handy again two innings later, when he walked the leadoff batter and promptly erased him with a snap throw to first for the out.

“We work on it all the time in practice,” Potter said. “And my defense back there, they help me out a lot.”

The Raiders threatened again in the bottom of the sixth. Bratcher led off with a single, then moved to second on Carter Bessette’s sacrifice bunt. A fly ball to center field wasn’t deep enough for Bratcher to advance on his own, but the throw to third was off target for an error that allowed the senior to move up a base. Potter escaped the jam by getting an inning-ending groundout.

Sutton Hyde finished up for the Trojans, allowing a one-out single to Briggs Young before closing out the game by striking out the side.

“We’re bad offensively right now,” Warren East coach Wes Sanford said. “We’re just in our own heads. When you get to struggling, it just kind of consumes you. You worry about the result instead of knowing you’re just trying to hit the ball hard. That’s the goal and we continue put more pressure on ourselves than we need to, taking more pitches that we need to be hammering.”

Young finished with two hits for the Raiders, who totaled just three. Bratcher was the tough-luck loser after pitching a complete game and allowing only two runs off seven hits. He struck out two batters.

Potter got the win, allowing no runs off two hits and three walks. He struck out three.

The district rivals have a quick turnaround with a rematch scheduled for Tuesday at Barren County.

BCHS 110 000 0 — 2 7 1

WEHS 000 000 0 — 0 3 1

WP: Potter. LP: Bratcher: SV: S. Hyde.

Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News

email author More by Jeff

More Sports

WKU climbs to second heading into CUSA Championships final round

Lady Tops’ Hermanova CUSA Women’s Tennis Athlete of the Week

Roster shuffle starts for Tops as portal opening nears

Thedford announces commitment to Memphis

Print Article