SAND ROCK – Sand Rock baseball coach Eddy Norris knew it might be a possibility his Wildcats may be a bit emotionally drained on Tuesday against Cedar Bluff. It was their first game since winning the Cherokee County Tournament on Saturday.

The Wildcats may have been drained emotionally as Norris suggested, but Sand Rock still managed to win its fifth game in a row by outlasting Cedar Bluff, 16-12.

Sand Rock (8-2) belted out 19 hits against Cedar Bluff (4-6). The Wildcats were led at the plate by Shane Wells and Justin Kyser. Both went 3 for 4 and accounted for five of Sand Rock’s runs.

The Wildcats were aided by a nine-run third inning, in which they sent 13 batters to the plate.

“We hit the ball extremely well tonight,” Norris said. “I don’t know how many hits we had in a row that one inning, but I know we made it all the way through the lineup without making an out. A lot of them were clean base hits.”

The Wildcat slugfest spoiled a stellar outing by the Tiger centerfielder Jake Bevels. He fell a triple short of hitting for the cycle. Bevels finished the game by going 4 for 4 with a home run, a double and two singles with five RBI.

“Jake Bevels is the ultimate competitor,” Cedar Bluff coach Taylor Talbot said. “Whether you put him on the football field, the baseball field or playing a game of horseshoes, he hates to lose about as bad as any kid I ever saw. That’s a good thing to have. He’s a great leader for us.”

Sand Rock jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Jake Thompson had a RBI-single to left to plate Wells and Dylan Langley drove home Dex Clanton on a sacrifice fly to give the Wildcats some early breathing room.

Cedar Bluff got one of those runs back on Bevels’ homer to right center before adding five more runs in the top of the third for a 6-2 lead.

The Tigers loaded the bases, and with one out, Jim Nelson walked to plate Kyle Beck to tie the game at two. Nelson later scored on a balk, and Bevels delivered a two-run single to make it 5-2 Tigers. Curtis Abernathy, who ended the game going 2 for 4, singled home another run to give Cedar Bluff the four-run lead.

However, that lead was short-lived.

Sand Rock erupted for nine runs in the bottom of the third to retake the lead at 11-6. Clanton and Kyser both had two-run singles to help jumpstart the inning. Wells, Langley and Justin Mackey each drove in a run with singles in the inning.

The Wildcats tacked on four runs in their half of the fourth, keyed by Mackey’s two-run double to right with two outs. Mackey’s hit gave Sand Rock a 15-6 lead.

Cedar Bluff got one of those runs back in the top of the fifth on Bevels’ RBI-double that scored Seth Gordon to make it 15-7. Gordon also doubled to lead off the inning.

The Wildcats pushed another run across in the bottom of the fifth when Langley tripled to left and scored on Kyser’s single with one out. That run gave Sand Rock a seemingly comfortable 16-7 lead.

But the Tigers fought their way back again in the top of the sixth. They scored five runs to trim Sand Rock’s lead to 16-12.

Justin Norton had a two-run single in the inning. Bevels later added a RBI-single to right to help the Tigers pull within four runs.

After Sand Rock failed to score in the bottom of the sixth, Mackey came in to slam the door on the Tigers and earned the save.

Clanton got the win for the Wildcats in relief of starter Riley Norris. Clanton worked 3 1/3 innings and gave up six runs off seven hits with two strikeouts.

“We were working on getting some guys hitting, pitching and playing at different positions,” Norris said. “We’re still trying to fit those small pieces of the puzzle together so we can hopefully make a good run in the next several weeks. Tonight’s win makes it five in a row, and we want to be playing good going into next week (area play) for sure.”

Lot Maxwell suffered the loss for Cedar Bluff, but Talbot was proud of how the Tigers battled.

“They’ve battled hard all year, had good approaches at the plate and tried to swing the bats real well,” he said. “But when you run up a good team like Sand Rock, you can’t fall behind like we did and expect to make anything of it.

“We gave ourselves a chance, but you know at some point they’re going to run Mackey out there and slam the door.”