The Escambia Academy Cougars picked up their 10th win of the season Monday afternoon with a 10-0 shutout of the Atmore Christian School Rams.

ACS opened the game by loading the bases with two outs, but EA’s pitcher Blake Clark was able to strikeout the Rams’ Caleb Hochstetler to end the threat.

ACS pitcher William Swartzendruber retired Cougars’ leadoff hitter Brett Helton before striking out Nate Smith for two outs in the bottom of the first.

Reid Bell singled during the next at-bat and stole second before Michael Thompson doubled to make the score 1-0. Tristan McAnally flew out for the third out of the inning.

Clark struck out the side of Daren Landis, Charlie Gandy and Austin Swartzendruber in the top of the second.

William Swartzendruber walked Trey McGhee to start the bottom of the second inning. McGhee moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by J.P. Sawyer and scored on a sacrifice fly by Brett Gorum to take a 2-0 lead.

Clark singled during the next at-bat and Ryan Johnson came on as a courtesy runner. Johnson stole second base, but took third and scored on throwing errors by Ram infielders.

Helton struck out to end the threat, but not before the Cougars took a 3-0 lead.

William Swartzendruber led off the top of the third with a single on a hard hit ball that ricocheted off McGhee’s glove after a diving effort to stop it. Perry Metzler flew out and Christopher Gehman struck out before Jared Aliff was walked.

William Swartzendruber took third base on a passed ball, but Clark struck out Wesley Hostetler to end the threat.

EA’s Nate Smith doubled to leadoff the bottom of the third inning. He then took third on a wild pitch before scoring on a passed ball to put the Cougars up 4-0.

Bell was thrown out at finish the next at-bat and Thompson singled. McAnally tripled to score Thompson and put EA up 5-0.

William Swartzendruber was relieved by Gehman after two and a third innings. Gehman got McGhee to groundout to first, but McAnally scored on the play to give EA a 6-0 lead.

Sawyer was hit by a pitch and took first base. Sawyer tried to score from first on a Gorum single, but was tagged out at the plate by ACS’ Aliff to end the inning.

Clark struck out Hochstetler and Ricque Lopez. The Cougar pitcher also forced Landis to groundout to first to retire the side in order to end the top of the fourth.

The Cougars benefited on back-to-back singles by Gorum and Clark in the bottom of the fourth. The pair moved up a base each when Helton was thrown out at first base.

Gorum was able to score from third on a wild pitch during the next at-bat. That run gave EA a 7-0 lead.

Johnson scored on a Smith Single to increase the lead to 8-0 and Bell was hit by a pitch to put a runner in scoring position. Thompson was hit by a pitch during the next at-bat to load the bases.

McAnally hit into a fielder’s choice that scored Smith to give the Cougars a 9-0 lead. McGhee was thrown out at first to end the inning.

The Rams’ Nathan Jurjevich struck out to leadoff the top of the fifth inning. William Swartzendruber was thrown out at first and Metzler flew out to end the inning.

Sawyer reached first on an infield groundball that was mishandled. Gorum doubled during the next at-bat to move Sawyer to third. Sawyer scored on a passed ball to end the game at 10-0.

ACS hosts Central Christian Friday at 4:30 p.m.

EA hosted Sparta Tuesday, but results weren’t available as of press time.