Staff photo by Mike Buhler Dunklin County's Blake Wilbanks (right) dives back to first base after a pickoff attempt by Charleston during the first game of Thursday's doubleheader at Indian Park. DC won both games to improve to 13-2 on the season. [Click to enlarge]

After an impressive 10-0 win against Charleston in game one of Thursday's twin bill, Dunklin County's Junior American Legion squad had to pull out all the stops in an 11-10 victory in their final at-bat in game two.

In game one, Dunklin County used a dominating pitching performance from Trey Bazzell to cruise to a 10-0 win in six innings. The lefty tossed a complete game one-hitter to earn the win. Bazzell struck out 11 -- 10 of which were swinging -- in his six innings of work and only walked one batter. Head coach Aaron New was impressed with the way his pitcher threw the ball.

"That's probably the best I've seen Trey pitch since I've been his coach," New said. "He was sharp out there, locating everything."

Staff photo by Mike Buhler Dunklin County's Trey Bazzell delivers a pitch against Charleston during the first game of Thursday's doubleheader at Indian Park. [Click to enlarge]

Charleston's only threat against Bazzell came in the fourth inning with Dunklin County up 3-0. Blake Gaddis led off with a double, but Bazzell worked out of the jam by striking out the next two batters and inducing a fly ball to centerfielder Andrew Hooper.

"Trey could've came out and given up that double, walked a few and given up some runs," New said. "But he settled down and did what we expected of him to get us back in the dugout."

In the bottom of the fourth, Dunklin County added another run when Logan Dollins connected on Chase McClendon's first pitch of the inning for a solo home run to left field. The Redbirds tacked on three runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth to give them a 10-0 mercy rule victory.

Again, offensive balance was key for Dunklin County. Seven different Redbirds drove in runs in game one, and eight different players recorded hits.

Thomas Stillman led the offensive charge with two hits and three RBIs. Seth Littrell and Dollins also recorded two hits in the game, knocking in a run a piece. Joe Campbell, Andy Lack, Gage Blue, Billy Fender and Chris Smith also had hits.

"If we get that kind of balance the rest of the summer, I think we have a chance to be a pretty good team by the end of the season," New said.

Game two didn't go as smoothly for the Redbirds.

Dunklin County got on the board in the first with three runs thanks to an RBI single from Smith and a two-run double from Dylan Lynn. The Redbirds went up 4-0 in the second when Patrick Ratliff scored on Lack's single after reaching on a walk.

Charleston chipped away in the third inning with an unearned run off Littrell, Dunklin County's starter on the mound. The Fighting Squirrels took a 5-4 lead in the fourth with four earned runs on five hits off of reliever Logan Dollins in his only inning of work.

Charleston benefitted from two Dunklin County errors in the fifth, scoring four runs -- one of which was earned -- off of Lack to build a 9-4 lead.

The Redbirds pecked away at their deficit in the bottom off the fifth when Fender and Alex Bohnert scored on bases-loaded walks, making the score 9-6.

Lack held Charleston scoreless in the sixth, and he was relieved by Stillman in the seventh. After Stillman struck out Charleston's Tyler Whybark to start the seventh, Blake Gaddis rifled a 1-0 offering over the right-center fence to make the score 10-6. After yielding a single to the next batter, Stillman struck out McClendon and Eric Rolwing to send the game to the bottom of the seventh.

Bazzell reached safely on an error to start the home half of the inning and was erased on a fielder's choice off the bat of Matt Rainey. Rainey was then thrown out at second on a fielder's choice from Ratliff, giving Dunklin County a runner at first with two outs.

Daniel Lockhert drew a walk, and Ratliff scored on Lack's single to make the score 10-7. Smith singled to load the bases, which brought Joe Campbell to the dish.

Campbell laced a 2-2 pitch into the right-center gap for a triple, clearing the bases and tying the game at 10-all.

Bohnert followed Campbell's heroics with some of his own, fighting off a fastball for a game-winning single.

New was proud of the way his team battled back with two outs in the seventh.

"I was a little disappointed that we put ourselves in that situation with some silly mistakes," New said. "You just can't say enough about kids who will stay in there and battle. Joe Campbell came up with a big hit and Alex Bohnert picked up the game winner, but there were guys before them who had great at-bats to give us enough runners to score."

Dunklin County (13-2) plays Batesville, Ark., today at 1 p.m. in Paragould, Ark., in the first game of Paragould RC's weekend tournament.