STATENVILLE — Clinch County pitcher Rhett Barber was dominant on the mound in the season finale for both Clinch County and Echols County, carrying the Panthers to a 10-0 win Thursday.

Barber took a no-hitter into the fifth inning of the Panthers’ 10-0 win over Echols County (2-18 overall, 1-9 in Region 1-A), but it was broken up by John Garner on a one-out pinch hit single.

“He’s thrown well. On the gun, he was getting 85 and 86 on his fastball,” Clinch County head coach Cecil Barber said of his starting pitcher. “He’s throwing hard. He hit 89 last week.”

The win gives the Region 1-A champion Panthers (18-7, 10-0) the top seed entering the Class A state tournament, where they’ll host either Emanuel County Institute or McIntosh County Academy Thursday.

Overall, four Wildcats reached base all game against Barber, who struck out nine. Of the three in the first four innings, two were on errors and one on a fielders choice.

The early innings saw Clinch race out to a 10-0 lead by taking advantage of Echols County mistakes. Clinch scored once in the first and four times in the second, before plating the final five runs in the third.

“We’ve hit the ball a lot better as a team this year. I think we’ve got three guys hitting over .400, and that’s the first time I’ve had that in a long time,” Coach Barber said.

The first batter of the game, the Panthers’ Rick Corbitt, reached on an error by Echols third baseman Chris Gilbert.

After stealing second, Corbitt scored on a Rance Morgan single.

Mistakes again changed the face of the game in the second inning.

With Robert Musgrove on second and Chad Mullis on first with one out, Lee Douglas grounded to second base.

Wildcat second baseman Carlos Estrada tried to apply the tag to Mullis. When Mullis avoided the tag, Estrada fired to first. The throw sailed wide and into the Panther dugout.

The miscue allowed all runners to advance two bases, advancing Douglas to second and both runners home.

After Palacios fanned Chase Daniel, the rally continued with a Corbitt single to score Douglas.

“We’re rebuilding. We trying to rebuild our pitching. The defense has come along, we had a couple of errors. We’ve got some young pitchers and young players,” Echols County head coach Rolla Henderson said. “It’s always good to play against a team like Clinch. They’re a 7-10 run better team than we are and we know that.”

Jose Palacios took the loss for the Wildcats, giving up five runs over two innings, all of them unearned.

But the Panthers were hit by the injury bug for the second time in a week when Corbitt injured his ankle sliding safely into second base on a stolen base try. He left the game and did not return. Clinch also rested centerfielder Jarrett Edwards, who sustained an injury Saturday against Ware County.

Brett Denmark replaced Corbitt and came around on a single by Morgan for a 5-0 Panther lead.

Heath Bowen took the mound in the third for Echols and walked Musgrove and Douglas. With Musgrove on third, he and Douglas perfectly executed a double steal to score another run.

Daniel then reached on an error and Denmark walked, loading the bases. Barber brought Douglas home on sacrifice fly for a 7-0 Panther lead.

Morgan cleared the bases by driving Bowen’s pitch over the left field wall, scoring the final Clinch runs.