Oran starter Todd Priggel gave up single tallies in the second, third and fourth innings, but it could have been much worse. Malden opened the game with a double but the next three were retired. In the second Malden wrangled back-to-back walks followed by a hit batter with one down. One out later another base on balls forced in a run.
In the third, the visitors picked up a home run. In the fourth, it a walk, a wild pitch and double.
As the Eagles came to bat in the both of the fourth they were down 3-0 and had yet to get a hit.
Ty Johnson started the frame making it to second on an outfield error. He scored on Kaden Hargrove's double. Hargrove would cross on Dawson Menz's one-out triple. Menz tied the game on Conner Kern's sacrifice fly.
In the fifth, Kole Simms, who had come in to pitch in relief of Priggel, in the top-half, led off the bottom with a walk. Ty Johnson was hit by a pitch. Hargrove and Dane Shands singled with one out to give the Eagles a 6-3 lead.
Oran picked up a couple of insurance runs in the sixth, which proved to be the difference in the game. Kern doubled to start the inning. With two out Priggel hit a shot over the right field fence to put the Eagles up 8-3.
In the seventh, after a leadoff single, Johnson relieved Simms. But following a strikeout, a single, three walks, two errors and a ground out, Malden had the bases loaded and trailed by only a run with two down. Freshman Conner Kern came the mound and got a flyout to end the game and give Oran the win in the game that featured defending state champs.
Simms (1-0) picked up the win in relief. He went two innings gave up one run, it was earned, one hit did not walk a batter and struck out three. Johnson went two-thirds of an inning and allowed three runs, two earned. He walked three and gave up one hit. He struck out one. Kern got the one-out save, his first.
Priggel, Hargrove and Shands each had two RBI. Hargrove was the only Eagle with more than one hit, he had two.
Coach Joe Bickings said, "We won the game and that’s all that matters. That was my message after the 8-7 win against Malden. We knew they were going to be a tough team and we knew they weren’t going to roll over and just let us have the game. They battled back with a four-run seventh inning and it was a little shaky for us that inning. I think our inexperience showed during that last inning. We couldn’t throw strikes and we made some errors. Sometimes that’s baseball and they always say that the toughest outs are always the last 3. Early on in the game, we didn’t swing the bats that well as we had numerous pop up on a kid that kept us off balance. We were able to take advantage of some miscues from Malden that allowed us to tie the game in the 4th and take the lead in the 5th. I thought Todd threw really well and gave us a chance to win. His issue was walks (2 of the 4 walks he gave up scored) but he battled and got the outs when he needed and never gave up a crooked number. I tell the kids all the time that if we limit them to just one run when they score in an inning and we can put up a crooked number, we are going to give ourselves a chance to win. Ty struggled a little on the mound but Connor was able to be a great teammate and finish the game for his first save of the year. It was a good win with a team that played 15 games to our 7 and I thought it was a good early test for our young team."
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