Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Eagles rally past Hornets

The Oran High School fall baseball team opened its season at home yesterday against the rival Advance Hornets. Things looked bleak for the Eagles as they trailed 2-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning as they had been limited to only two singles thus far and had stranded the bases loaded in the first with only one down.  But Oran came thru late and picked up a 4-3 victory to open the season on a high note.

In that first frame.  Todd Priggel singled with one out.  That was followed by back-to-back walks to "K"ole Simms and Kaden Hargrove but a force out at home and a strikeout ended the chance.

Meanwhile, Eagle starter, Ty Johnson, kept the visitors off the board through his 2 and one-third innings that he tossed, he was helped by a fantastic diving catch in center by Connor Kern.  Hargrove came in relief, one of four pitchers used by Oran on the day.  He gave up a single and a walk but induced a double play to end the Hornet threat.

Coach Joe Bickings said, "We went in wanting to throw everyone under 45 pitches and let them get some work before this weekend's tournament.  We had 4 guys go out and throw quality pitches for us and some of them being in high leverage situations.  The good news was that we were able to get out of those situations by limiting the damage and only allowing them to score 1 run in the innings they scored in."

Hargrove gave up a run in the fourth after consecutive walks, a wild pitch and a passed ball.  The first out was then recorded via a strike-three looking.  Johnson fielded a ground ball and threw home to catcher Nic Massey who made the tag for the second out.  The next batter, however, reached on an infield error allowing an unearned run to score.  Kolten Payne then took over the pitching duties and struck out the first he faced to end the Advance at-bat.

In the bottom half, Oran finally dented the scoreboard.  Freshman, Luke Peterson worked a leadoff walk, went to second on a passed ball, to third on Johnson's fly out to center and crossed the plate on Priggel's sac fly to left.

Advance got that run back in the sixth.

A one-out single, a stolen base and an error made it 3-1.

The Eagles batted around in their half against thee different Hornet hurlers.

Carter Heuring reached on an infield error and that led to pitching change number one.  Dawson Menz singled to center advancing Heuring to second.  Kern executed a sacrifice bunt moving the runners to second and third.  Massey picked up his first high school base hit driving in Carter and moving Menz to third making the score 3-2.  Massey moved to second on a pitch that got away from the catcher, but not far enough for the tying run to cross.  Peterson followed with his first high school hit, an RBI single that drove home, Menz.  Massey stopped at third while Peterson advanced to second on the throw.  The third pitcher of the inning took over and Johnson was hit by a pitch to load the bases.  But, after a base runner was picked off, Priggel walked to reload the sacks. Simms then walked for the fourth time in the game to force Peterson home with what proved to be the winning run.

Bickings added, "We were able to take advantage of some of their mistakes in the 6th inning and score 3 runs to take the lead 4-3.  We didn't knock the cover off the ball by any means but we were able to have some good at-bats and get some hits when we really needed them."

Advance made it interesting in the seventh.

Kern came in to work the inning.  He retired the first on a ground ball to second.  The next two singled, however, putting runners on first and second.  Johnson caught a pop up in shallow center and Hargrove fielded a ground ball at third and stepped on the bag to end the contest, giving the Eagles an exciting season-opening win.

Johnson went the first 2 and one-third innings giving up no runs, one hit, one walk while striking out four.   Hargrove also went 2 and one-third innings.  He allowed two runs, only one earned on four hits, three walks and he struck out two. Freshman Kolten Payne recorded the win going an inning and a third.  He gave up one unearned run on one hit while striking out three.  Sophomore Connor Kern tossed the final inning to pick up the save.  He allowed two hits.

Oran's offense only managed five hits on the day.  Menz had two of them.  Priggel, Massey and Peterson had the others.  Simms, Priggel, Massey and Peterson each had an RBI.  Heuring, Menz, and Peterson, twice, scored the runs.

The teams played two innings of junior varsity.  Advance scored the only run.

The Eagles will be back in action on Friday when they make the long trek to Ellsinore to face East Carter County at 5:30 pm.








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