Down By Seven, Wildcats Rally Past Dragons, 13-9

RISON - Matthew Howard had four hits while Ethan Saeler had two doubles and a single to help Rison battle back from a seven-run deficit to knock off the Junction City Dragons, 13-9, for their first win of the season Tuesday afternoon at Wildcat Field.It was Coach Chad Cope's first victory with the program as the 'Cats improved to 1-4 overall and 1-1 in league play with the 8-2A conference victory.Early on, it looked as though Rison was headed for its fifth straight defeat as Junction City took advantage of some early miscues to plate seven runs before the 'Cats saw their first atbat.JC's first batter was hit by a pitch and the next batter reached on an error. After a sacrifice bunt moved the runners, the next three Dragons drew walks to force in the first two runs. After a pop up for the second out, an error followed by two more singles generated five additional runs as Junction City opened up a quick 7-0 lead.Rison, however, answered with five runs in the bottom of the first. Lawson Kidd started it with a hit before an error on Matthew Howard's grounder put two aboard. Kidd then scored on another error off Andrew Couture's ground ball, and Canon Cope followed with a double that drove in two more, closing it to 7-3. The 'Cats added a run off Owen Morrison's sacrifice fly and a two-out double by Ethan Saeler made it 7-5.Rison cut it to a one-run lead, 7-6, in the fourth when Howard led off with a single and his courtesy runner, Aaron Tilley, scored on yet another Dragon error.The Wildcats would completely erase the seven-run deficit in the bottom of the fifth. Morrison led off with double and James Jacobs was then hit by a pitch. Ethan Saeler then hammered his second double of the game to score two more runs and give Rison an 8-7 lead. Howard and Southerland followed with RBI singles to push it to a 10-7 advantage.The Dragons used a double and a couple of singles score a couple of rus in the top of the sixth to make...