Payton Walker shut down Carthage’s offense, and the bottom of the lineup ignited Carl Junction’s attack as the Bulldogs posted a 7-1 victory Saturday afternoon in the championship game of the 37th annual Bill O’Dell Tournament at Carl Lewton Stadium.

Walker, junior left-hander scattered six hits, walked one batter and struck out five in his complete-game performance. “Payton did great,” Bulldogs head coach Flave Darnell said. “Payton will be the first to say he struggled a little bit on Tuesday. He came out and looked a little sharper today. He was able throw his pitches for strikes early in the count and was able to command the zone.”

Carthage put two runners in scoring position in the first inning but failed to score. Zack Powell led off with a double to right-center field, but he was tagged out after sliding past the bag. Then with two outs Brian Poston singled and stole second, but Walker logged a strikeout to end the game.

Walker retired 15 of the 18 batters he faced during the next five innings before the Tigers scored an unearned run in the seventh on singles by Terrin Garber and Ethan Wiggin and a throwing error on a potential double-play grounder.

“Walker threw a heck of a game,” Carthage head coach Mike Godfrey said. “We haven’t been really challenged by frontline pitching yet I don’t believe, and we were definitely today. We knew it would be a challenge, and he was all we wanted and more. He did a great job.

“We had some guys hitting some balls pretty hard early, a couple of guys in scoring position early. The (key) hit didn’t drop or we couldn’t get it. I thought that was part of it, and then we had a couple of guys down 0-2, made a couple of mistakes and they made us pay.”

Carl Junction (8-4), in avenging an earlier loss to the Tigers this season, collected eight hits off Carthage starter Mark Ryan and reliever Drew Bridges. Six of the eight hits came from spots 6 through 9 in the lineup, including two apiece by No. 7 Keegan Pittman and No. 8 Garrett Carden..

Chase Marrs and Pittman singled with one out in the second inning, and with two outs, No. 9 hitter Jared Forker hit an 0-2 pitch toward right field that was misjudged and fell for a triple to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead.

Third baseman Poston’s leaping catch robbed Marrs of a hit to start the fourth inning, but Pittman doubled down the left-field line and scored on Carden’s single to left on another 0-2 pitch for a 3-0 lead.

At the top of the lineup, Walker walked with two outs, and Jack Luton was hit by a pitch to fill the bases. Logan Deem greeted Bridges with a roller down the third-base line that went for a hit and RBI, and Nathan Skaggs cleared the bases with a line drive that plugged the gap in right-center field.

“They did a real good job,” Darnell said. “Ryan is a really good pitcher, and we were fortunate to put the ball in play when we had a couple of strikes on us. Hats off to those guys for getting on base and setting the table a little bit.”