Slowed by a sore should for much of his junior season, Harlan County’s Jesse Gilbert looked his old self again just in time for the Black Bears. Gilbert earned his first pitching win of the season Tuesday as he went the distance on the mound in a 7-2 victory over visiting Middlesboro. 

Gilbert pitched a four-hitter with 11 strikeouts and no walks and overcame a brutal night from the defense behind him as he worked around six errors. 

“Gibby looked like prime Gibby tonight, I was so happy for him,” Harlan County coach Scotty Bailey said. “He’s battled soreness in his shoulder all year and did an excellent job on the mound tonight, I was so happy for him.”

Gilbert gave up only one hit through five innings before the mistakes extended the game and forced him to battle through the last two innings.

“We didn’t execute great tonight, but getting a district win isn’t easy, so I’m proud of them for that,” Baileys said. “We’ve got to execute better. I thought we executed very well yesterday. We just have to do that game to game and it opens everything else up. Defensively, we have a lot of guys rotating at some new positions depending on pitching, so we’re working out some kinks in it. We’ve got to clean up the errors and just make the simple plays, but like I said I believe we will we just got to keep getting reps and getting better each day. I am proud of them for their efforts and doing what they’re asked to do.”

The Harlan County offense was dominated by bunts, and the Jackets helped the plan work with six errors of their own. Carson Clark had two of the Bears’ hits while Brennan Blevins and Chance Sturgill added one each.

Isaac Harris had three of the Jackets’ four hits with a single in the first inning, an RBI double in the sixth and an RBI single in the seventh after Parker Hampton reached on a two-out error and moved to second on a single by Mitchell Capps.

Harlan County batted around in the first inning with the help of three walks, two errors and a hit batsmen and scored three runs. The Bears added two more runs in the second capped by back-to-back hits by Clark and Sturgill after two hit batsmen and an error.

The Bears added two insurance runs in the sixth inning as DaShaun Smith walked and Blevins reached on an error. Gilbert’s sacrifice bunt brought in the final run for HC.

Parker Hampton suffered the loss for Middlesboro as he gave up five runs on four hits with six strikeouts, three walks and four hit batsmen in five innings. John Hayes allowed two runs on no hits with two walks in one inning.

Harlan County (8-11 overall, 2-4 district) plays host to Leslie County on Thursday. Middlesboro (5-9 overall, 0-6 districtt) travels to Williamsburg on Monday.

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Middlesboro 000 001 1 — 2. 4. 6

Harlan County 320 002 x — 7. 4. 6

Gilbert and Smith; Hampton, Hayes (6) and Capps. WP — Gilbert (1-2). LP — Hampton.