Hutton records 12Ks in Cougar regional title win
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By KENT COULTAS
Dalton Hutton struck out 12 batters to lead West Central to a 6-3 win over Brown County in the championship game of the West Central Class A baseball regional May 20 at Winchester.
West Central (19-9) advances to play Bushnell-Prairie City at the Brown County sectional May 25 at 4:30 p.m. It was West Central’s first baseball regional championship since 2016.
The game was a pitchers’ duel for four innings. Brown County had a runner reach second base in both the second and fourth innings, but Hutton recorded a strikeout of the third out in both innings.
Hutton doubled in the second inning, but was thrown out trying to advance to third base. Tyson Brown and Mason Berry both walked in the fourth inning, but the new batters flew out to end the threat.
Brown County scored two runs in the fifth inning. Jack Buss singled with one out, and courtesy runner Eli Staton scored on a double by Colby Wort. Wort went third on a balk and scored on an error. The Hornets had runners on first and second base with one out, but Hutton struck out the next batters to end the inning.
West Central came back and scored five runs in the top of the sixth inning.
Tyson Brown and Cameron Sievers both reached on errors. Brown scored when Berry reached on an error. Sievers and Berry both scored when Carson Brown doubled, and West Central led 3-2.
Landyn Woods line drive barely got over glove of a leaping third baseman for single as Carson Brown scored. Woods reached second on a sacrifice bunt by Hutton, went to third when Caden Meyer grounded out and scored when Owen Barber singled between the shortstop and third baseman.
The Hornets added a run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Cole Behymer reached on an error with one out and went to second when Buss was hit by a pitch. Behymer scored on a double by Wort.
Hutton got a strike out for the third out of the inning as Brown County stranded runners on second and third.
West Central added an insurance run in top of the seventh. Tyson Brown reached on a walk to lead off the inning, stole second and went to third on an error. Tyson Brown scored on a two out hit by his brother Carson Brown.
The first two batters for Brown County in the seventh grounded out to the second baseman and shortstop, respectively. After a walk, Hutton recorded his 12th strike out for the final out of the game.
Hutton scattered five hits over seven innings and walked two batters. He also went 1-for-2 with a double.
Carson Brown went 2-for-4 with a double and drove in three runs. Barber went 1-for-3 and drove in one run, and Woods went 1-for-4 and drove in one run.
Tyson Brown scored two runs. Sievers and Berry each scored one run.
