SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – Kaleb Maillet pitched his second-consecutive complete-game shutout, Caden Peacock delivered a clutch 3-RBI triple, and the Shelbyville Central Golden Eagles (19-4, 4-2) tamed the Tullahoma Wildcats (11-11, 4-2) in a 6-0 win on Monday night in game one of the ‘Battle of Highway 41-A’ series.

“It’s very fun when you have a guy on the mound like Kaleb [Maillet] because he buries the strike zone, he has command of all of his pitches, and he’s in total command out on the mound,” Shelbyville Central’s Head Coach Chase Jones said postgame, “That just gives our kids a lot of confidence [at the plate].” 

Maillet gave up just four hits, zero walks, and struck out four batters on 83 pitches, and he never felt truly threatened by the Tullahoma offense. 

Ben Quick pitched well for Tullahoma, throwing 5.0 innings and giving up just one earned run on four hits and no walks with six strikeouts on 73 pitches. 

However, it was a leadoff hit-by-pitch that eventually broke the seal for the hosts. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Ashton Whorley was hit by the first pitch of the inning thrown by Quick, and Braxton Vari promptly bunted Whorley into scoring position. Then, a wild pitch allowed Whorley to break to third with just one out, and Miles McCullough came through with a hard-hit RBI-groundout to a diving second baseman to give the Golden Eagles a 1-0 lead. 

“Miles hit a hard ground ball, and Ashton told him that if he sees the fielder moving hard to his right or left that he would break [to the plate] immediately and he scored our first run to kind of loosen us up a bit,” Jones said.

Xander Pogue came on in relief for the sixth inning, and Stephen Bobo met the Wildcats reliever with a leadoff single back up the middle. Bobo promptly stole second base, then Case Davis worked a walk. Brody Thomas also worked a walk to load the bases with nobody out, bringing up Caden Peacock.

Peacock fell behind in the count, 1-2, before barreling up a pitch from Pogue that found the right-center field gap, clearing the bases and resulting in a triple for the Golden Eagles’ catcher as well as  a 4-0 lead for the hosts.

“Peacock [did] what Peacock has been doing,” said Jones, “He found a barrel and drove a ball to score three of ‘em and seal the ball game for us.”

Elijah Westbrooks drove Peacock home on an RBI-double, then Vari’s sac-fly drove Westbrooks home from third to plate a sixth insurance run, including Shelbyville Central’s fifth of the inning.

Maillet shut the door on the Wildcats in the top of the seventh to lock up game one of the non-district series.

“Tonight was a battle at the plate,” Jones said, “[Ben] Quick did a great job commanding the strike zone, but our guys just hung in there and were able to break it open in the sixth inning. Earlier this year, you could feel the tension in close games. We still might lose some of those games, but our kids have complete confidence that they’re going to play and control what they can control.” 

At the plate for Shelbyville Central, McCullough led off going 0-for-4 but delivered an RBI, Blake Bone finished 1-for-4, and Stephen Bobo was a perfect 2-for-2 with a sacrifice. Peacock was 1-for-3 with his 3-RBI triple, Westbrooks went 2-for-3 with a double and one RBI, and Whorley finished 1-for-2 with a HBP.

Shelbyville Central looks for the sweep on Tuesday night at Tullahoma with first-pitch tentatively set for 6:00 p.m. Brody Thomas is the projected starter for the Golden Eagles.