George Rogers Clark bounced back from their loss to Harrison County Wednesday night in a 7-5 victory over Powell County.

Caden Easterling started on the mound as the Cards quickly fell behind 3-0 within the first two innings to the Pirates due to a two-run homer and a few errors.

GRC made their come back late in the fifth inning.

Jake Ware singled to left field followed by an Easterling walk.

Bo Billings’ sacrifice bunt led to an error by the pitcher allowing Ware to score to tie the game 4-4.

Aaron Abner hit a soft ground ball back to the pitcher causing another error and Easterling scored giving the Cards their first lead of the game and never looked back.

Billings was able to bring another run in for GRC because of a wild pitch by Powell County giving them a 6-4 lead.

Sophomore second baseman Dakota Puckett feels like his team has found a rhythm.

“We struggled at first a little bit when they got up on us 2-0,” he said. “Then everyone started hitting, getting our chemistry back. Everything started working.

Puckett said that they were not as focused as they should have been falling 3-0, but said the team made an adjustment at the right time.

“I told them that we had to get focused,” he said. “We have to hurry up and get in gear. I know we can do it and that we have talent we just have to do it.”

He said that the started to play like a team tonight compared to their loss against Harrison County Wednesday night.

“Wednesday night it seemed like we were playing ‘me’ ball,” he said. “Everyone was trying to get home runs and tonight everybody tried to get on base and that’s what we’re supposed to do.”

Head coach Matt Puckett said he liked the improvements from his team.

“We continued hitting the ball pretty good tonight,” he said. “Pitching was good too, Caden came out throwing strikes and getting ahead of the count. The good thing about this group of kids is they never quit and they always put up a fight.”

Coach Puckett said his team never gives up even when things don’t go their way.

“We knew it’s a long game with 21 outs,” he said. “We wanted to make them earn every one of their outs. Their pitcher was getting tired and up in his count a little bit. There was some nice bunts to move runners over and some timely hits. We just kept grinding and I told them they don’t have to score four or five runs, if we get one here and one there, we can continue battling.”

GRC finished the game with seven hits.

Dakota Puckett and Jake Ware were the only Cardinals with multiple hits.

Puckett led the way going 3-4 from the plate.

The Cardinals are looking to continue their winning streak as they head to Mason County Friday night to face off at 6 p.m.