Wyatt Tullos and Matt Boone lined up on opposite sides of the diamond for the first time in eight years Friday afternoon at Enterprise High School. Boone, a former Newton County assistant, took over at Morton (9-16, 6-4) last offseason.

The friendly reunion ended in Tullos’ Cougars nabbing a 6-0 win against Boone’s Panthers, but there was no love lost between the two good friends. 

“When you see someone you’re close to for all those years, it’s a mixed emotion type of thing,” Tullos said. “They’re going to move forward. I think they have a matchup in the playoffs next weekend, so congratulations to them on that.”

Boone said he had an opportunity to reconnect with Tullos before the game. 

“It’s always good to go up against Coach Tullos,” Boone said. “He’s a mentor to me. We talked a little bit about our families and about our teams and stuff. It was good to see him.”

Newton County (14-11, 4-6) starting pitcher Christian Aycox struck out seven batters and allowed four hits to earn the win.

One night after dropping a game to West Lauderdale that ended their chances of making the postseason, the Cougars didn’t show any signs of despair. Aycox flashed his bat with a single in the top of the second inning that scored courtesy runner Cole Shimfessel, who was inserted following a Josh Ethridge hit by pitch, giving Newton County a 1-0 lead.

Newton County added another run to the board in the top of the fifth following an RBI single by Hayden West, which plated Eli Harrison.

Alec Ivey and Harrison singled as Newton County’s first two batters of the top of the seventh and were followed by a walk from Gavin Bailey. West laced a double to center field to score Ivey and Harrison and shift Bailey to third. Ethan West added an RBI single to score Bailey, and Jace Henderson grounded into a double play, but the at-bat sent Hayden West home and made the score 6-0.

“We have guys with a lot of character, and I’m proud of them,” Tullos said. “We’d be lying if we said we hadn’t been a little bit disappointed in the way things turned out in the regular season, but I’m proud of them for coming out and competing hard. In high school athletics, you learn a couple things about how you handle yourself in good times and in bad times. Probably, that is one of the greatest lessons we learn in high school athletics.”

Newton County closes the regular season next Tuesday at Meridian. 

Boone and Morton head to the playoffs next week as the No. 3 seed in their division. 

“We’ve had a decent year; I think it could be better, but guys are buying into our system for the most part,” Boone said. “It’s been a pretty good year, but like I told them the other day, we’re 0-0 starting next Friday going into the playoffs. So we’ll just see what happens.”

Harrison paced Newton County with three hits, and Aycox and Hayden West finished with two apiece. Hayden West also led Newton County with three RBIs. 

Dylan Grantham led Morton with two hits.