By Robert Griffin

Sports Writer

Callaway’s Hunter Heath answered the bell.

Senior Chris Laye was the starting pitcher for Thursday’s game against Taylor County, but he had to leave the game early on with an injury.

Luckily for the Cavaliers, Hunter Heath took to the mound and held the Vikings scoreless through three innings of work.

Callaway won 11-1 in a game shortened to five innings because of the mercy rule.

“When I came in I was a little nervous, but once I got going I started settling down and I think I did fine,” Heath said. “I was just trying to hit my spots and get outs.”

Callaway head coach Dusty Hubbard said Laye’s injury “was-something in his ribcage on his right side that has been sore for a week or two. He just re-aggravated it, but he should make a quick recovery from it.”

Laye pitched the entire first inning, and he threw one pitch in the second inning before coming out.

Hubbard emphasized his pride in Heath being able to come out cold to the mound and hold the Vikings at bay.

“I was really proud of Hunter tonight,” Hubbard said. “He did a good job out there on the mound for us tonight, especially having to come in due to an injury. I mean one minute he’s on the bench and then the next he is having to go in. He does a good job for us getting ground balls and things like that, so he really helped us out tonight.”

Offensively the Cavs were helped out by third baseman Tavin Thompson, who went 2-for-2 in the game with two RBIs and second baseman Kyle Williams who went 1-for-2 with two RBIs.

Brandon Bowen came off the bench and had a two-run hit.

“For the most part we swung the bats pretty good, and everyone did a good job out there,” Hubbard said. “We are moving in the right direction swinging the bat.”

Hubbard said one area of concern of late has been defense, and he felt that area of the game was better on Thursday.

The team has made defense a point of emphasis during practice.

“One thing that we have been trying to work on this week is trying to help our pitchers out,” Hubbard said. “We make our pitchers throw too much, and make too many errors with two outs. We got after them in practice (Wednesday) and played like we had two outs, and if we booted a ball we had to do a lot of running. We have to get better at that.”

The Cavaliers (13-4) will return to Region 5-AA competition when they host Manchester today at 5:30 p.m.

Also this afternoon, the baseball and softball facility at Callaway is going to be re-named in honor of former head baseball coach Charles Stanfield.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. before the baseball game between Callaway and Manchester.

After the game, another ceremony will be held on the baseball field.

The facility will be named the Charles Stanfield Sports Complex.