Baseball splits in round robin

The Oran High School baseball team hosted a round-robin on Saturday.  The Eagles won the first game 5-3 over the Giants of St. Paul Lutheran, but dropped the nightcap 4-2 to the South Pemiscot Bulldogs.

Oran 5, St Paul 3

The Eagles grabbed a 4-2 lead thanks to a three-run third and made the margin hold up.  Todd Priggel (1-0) went the first four innings to pick up the win.  He allowed six hits, three runs--two earned.  He walked three and struck out four.  Connor Kern (1-0-2) picked up the three-inning save.  He did not allow a hit and struck out two.  Carter Heuring drove in two for an offense that only managed five hits in the game (all singles).

Coach Joe Bickings said, "[It] was a very good game for us.  We were able to execute and take advantage of some of their miscues in the field.  I thought Todd did a good job on the mound to limit the damage and only allowing them to score 1 run in the innings they scored in.  Connor Kern looked the best he has all year coming in and getting the save over 3 innings of work.  St. Paul's pitcher was a pretty good pitcher and we were able to get runners on and move them over and come up with a few timely hits."

The boxscore is located HERE.

South Pem 4, Oran 2

Both teams came into the contest with 5-0 records and it looked like the Eagles would remain undefeated, after they scored two unearned runs in the bottom of the second and the score was still 2-0 heading into the seventh.  

Kaiden Hargrove (1-1) took the loss, going the first six and one-third innings.  He was charged with all four runs, only allowed three hits, walked six and struck out four.  Kolten Payne got the final two outs.  He allowed two hits and struck out one.  Ty Johnson and Priggel had the RBI's for Oran, nobody had more than one hit as the offense was limited to six hits (once again, all singles).

Bickings said, "The game was a pitcher's duel.  Both pitchers were up there pumping strikes and letting their defense work.  I thought that Kaden pitched one of the best games of his career so far but unfortunately, he ran out of gas at the end.  We won every inning of that game except the last inning and sometimes that's baseball.  I felt like it hurt us a few times when we couldn't get a big two-out hit with runners in scoring position."

The boxscore is HERE.

The coach also added, "Overall, I was pleased with this weekend.  We were 1 inning away from going 2-0 against two very good opponents."

The 6-1 Eagles will be back in action this afternoon when they host the improving (4-5) Bloomfield Wildcats at 4:30.