Clarkdale’s Griffin Cheatham takes out Enterprise’s River Kidd as he breaks up the double play at second base Tuesday night.

ENTERPRISE — The Clarkdale-Enterprise rivalry hardly needed additional reasons to justify its intensity, but after the ending to Tuesday’s baseball game at Bulldog Field in Enterprise, another one was added.

Clarkdale (19-3, 9-0) kept its district undefeated record intact with a 2-1 victory, while Enterprise (18-4, 8-1) earned its first district blemish of the season.

“It’s always going to be that way with us,” Clarkdale coach Scott Gibson said of the rivalry’s energy. “I told our guys that we’re going to have to hang zeros with them.”

Enterprise entered the bottom of the seventh inning trailing 2-0 before River Kidd launched a solo homer to make the score 2-1 and give Enterprise life with just one out. Dalton Baxley popped out to center field in the following at-bat, which sent Landon Keely to the plate with two outs. 

Keely smacked a double to deep right field, sending the Enterprise dugout into a collective frenzy.

Facing two strikes in Enterprise’s next at-bat, Ridge Mathis swung and missed at a third, but the ball hit the ground, and Mathis darted toward first base. Josh Collum, Clarkdale’s catcher, overthrew his attempt to first, sending the apparent tying run home. However, umpires ruled Mathis out with the explanation that he stepped out of the running lane and impeded Collum’s throw, which ended the game. 

“That’s a rule — you can’t be out of the running lane,” Enterprise coach John Welch said. 

Clarkdale scored its first run in the top of the first courtesy of an RBI single from Collum that scored Ken Scott. Its second run came in the top of the second after an Enterprise error sent Kellen Spann to home plate with a 2-0 lead.

Clarkdale pitcher Easton Rainer tossed a complete game and struck out five.

“I thought Rainer made some big pitches in some big situations tonight to get him some strikeouts,” Gibson said. “And the defense played well behind him, too.”

Baxley started at pitcher for Enterprise and went the distance. After hitting the first two Clarkdale batters he faced, Baxley gained control and allowed just four hits, while striking out eight.

“He’s pitched well for us all year, and he pitched well for us tonight,” Welch said. “This week, we talked about adrenaline and how this is a big series. We had to work our way through some adrenaline. (Baxley) got geeked up and hit a couple of guys, but that didn’t lose the game for us. He pitched as well as we could have asked him to for us.”

Scott, Spann, Collum and Braxton Beech tallied one hit apiece for Clarkdale. 

Kidd and Keely led Enterprise with two hits, while Lane Kennedy and Zack Brewster reached base two times each via singles and a walk.

Both teams face each other again Thursday night at Clarkdale, with the district crown at stake.

“We just have to shake it off and come back to work tomorrow, and go over there with the same mentality we had tonight,” Welch said. “We played hard tonight; we played well tonight. We made some great plays defensively, and I was proud of how we played. I was very pleased with how my kids responded, how they performed and how they played everywhere on the field tonight.”