Riding an 11-game winning streak, and with an outright Region 6 title on the line, the Cottonwood Colts would not be denied against Murray on Thursday.

After barely beating the Spartans 4-3 earlier this year, Cottonwood made it look a lot easier this time around, defeating Murray 9-2 to give the Colts sole possession of the Region 6 title and ending any possibility of the Spartans tying them at the top.

"I thought we'd have a really close game. The thing that hurt them

was walks and hit batters," Cottonwood head coach John Hoover said.

"It's just another baseball win to us, and that's the main thing."

Although the Colts threatened in several innings, they only put runs

on the board in two of them, scoring four in the first and five in the

fourth. The Spartans scored first, however, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Brandt Anderson tripled to drive in Chaz Bollwinkel, who had doubled earlier in the inning.

After that flurry, however, Cottonwood pitcher Nelson Tait held the Spartans scoreless through the next four before being replaced by reliever Zach Adams in the sixth.

"I felt pretty good," Tait said. "It's just throwing strikes and letting my team handle it."

In the bottom of the first, Cottonwood's leadoff batter, Eric Doi, was hit by a pitch, and the next batter in line, Stephen Rodgers, immediately tripled to bring Doi around. Kyle Beverly then doubled, and

a batter later, Austin Wadsworth walked. Shortly after that, Corie

Sullivan singled to bring around two runs and give the Colts a 4-1 lead.

"It's fun and definitely good to beat Murray. We just have more energy on the bench," Sullivan said. "In the playoffs, we need to play

every game like we played today and play with lots of energy."

Austin Robbs got the huge fourth inning started for Cottonwood by

getting hit by a pitch. Sullivan then singled and, after a sacrifice

bunt took the runners to second and third, Dalton Gust's sacrifice fly

brought Robbs in from third. With two outs, the Colts proceeded to

score four more runs when Doi and Rodgers were hit by pitches, Beverly walked to bring in Sullivan, Ryan Thomas singled to bring in Doi and Rodgers, and a wild pitch scored Beverly.

Murray tried to put a rally in the bottom of the seventh, but the comeback bid was stifled after one run with a bases-loaded groundout.

Beverly, Thomas and Sullivan each had two RBIs for the Colts, while

Bollwinkel led Murray with two doubles and a run.

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E-mail: hbruce@desnews.com