From staff reports

The Callaway Cavaliers finally broke through at the plate Wednesday at Crawford County.

Callaway, trailing 7-0 in the fifth inning of the Region 5-AA match-up, battled back to win 11-10 and take sole possession of fourth place in the region.

“When you’re down 7-0 it’s easy to quit,” said Cavaliers’ head coach Dusty Hubbard. “We kept plugging away, and hopefully this is a win we can build on.”

The Cavaliers had lost several close games of late, including Tuesday’s 4-2 setback to Lamar County in which Callaway had just three hits.

Wednesday, the Cavaliers had 13 hits.

Callaway cut the Crawford lead to two in the fifth inning on RBIs from Tanner Thompson, Quay Boddie, Dominique Smedley, and Caleb Shelnutt.

Taylor Kenerley then hit a two-run homer to start a huge sixth inning for the Cavaliers.

Before the sixth was over, Callaway had an 11-8 advantage, helped by a bases-loaded triple from Tanner Thompson, who also had a great day on the mound.

Crawford added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh, but a dramatic two-out ground out with runners on first and third ended the game for the Cavaliers.

Thompson picked up the save on the mound, and the team played like Hubbard hasn’t seen in weeks.

“We had fun,” Hubbard said. “The kids got into it. We’ve lost some close ones lately, and we scrapped along. It was really big win.”

Callaway must defeat Manchester to be at ease about finishing fourth, which is the cut-off for making the state playoffs.

“We by no means have (fourth place) locked up,” Hubbard said. “We’ve got to keep playing.”