Tyler Legacy’s Cooper Moore swings the bat in this March 18 file photo.

On a day where the temperature touched the 80s, the bats of the Tyler Legacy Red Raiders got hot in an afternoon non-district game against Hallsville.

Legacy had 12 hits on the way to a 13-3 victory in five innings over Class 5A No. 25 Hallsville — a 2021 state finalist — on Saturday at Mike Carter Field.

“You talk about great to see,” Legacy interim head baseball coach Sam Gillispie of his team’s performance. “We’ve got some young kids stepping up. Cooper Moore, what a great week for him.

“This was a great team win. We had some great plays defensively in the field. Even dating back to the second game I was with them against Allen when we played them at home, we had four double plays. When our pitching and defense is on, we’ve just got to put pressure on people by playing some small ball. That’s what started it today. We got the leadoff guy on and bunted them over. Hey booted it around a little bit and turned it into a big inning.”

It was the fourth consecutive win for the Red Raiders (7-8-1), starting with that 3-0 win over Allen on March 18 and followed up by a District 10-6A sweep of Dallas Skyline — 12-2 on Tuesday and 7-2 on Friday — before Saturday’s outing.

Dakota McCaskill drew the start on Saturday and pitched five innings, allowing three runs — two earned — on two hits with three strikeouts, two walks and four hit batters.

McCaskill sat Hallsville down in order in the top of the first. The Red Raiders then sent eight batters to the plate. Moore had an RBI single, and McCaskill had an RBI groundout to give Legacy a 2-0 lead, but the bases were left loaded after Hallsville’s Ethan Miller made a spectacular catch in center field to end the inning.

The Bobcats (11-5-2) got a run back in the second inning with a double steal that brought Sawyer Dunagan in to score to cut the score to 2-1.

The Red Raiders responded with seven runs in the bottom of the second. Moore had an RBI single. Cooper Hill had a two-run single, and George Rippy and Mason Blake both had RBI singles.

Hallsville got its first hit of the game — a two-run double by Miller — to trim the score to 9-3 in the top of the third inning.

Moore led off the bottom of the third with a double. New Hallsville pitcher Blake Cox struck out the next two batters, but Moore was able to score on a wild pitch to make the score 10-3. Cox pitched two innings in relief of Grayson Werth, who allowed nine runs on nine hits in two innings.

Hallsville opened the fourth inning with pinch hitter Joe Torrans getting hit by a pitch and Drake Gribble reaching on an error before the Red Raiders turned a 6-4-3 double play with Hill flipping it to Luke Davis, who fired it to Walker Freeman at first. Dusty Carver was then plunked for the second time, but McCaskill got Logan Jones to fly out to Preston Newberry in center to end the game.

The Red Raiders tacked on three runs in the bottom of the fourth as Moore added another RBI single. Moore, a sophomore, was 4-for-4 in the game with three RBI and hit .800 for the week.

Carter Rogas, who was batting from Miller’s No. 2 spot in the order, led off the top of the fifth with a double. Miller and Rogas both doubled for the Bobcats’ only two hits of the afternoon.

Moore then turned a 5-3 double play to end the game in the fifth inning.

Davis and Rippy both had multiple hits for the Red Raiders.

Legacy will host No. 20 Rockwall at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Mike Carter Field.

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