Eagles Defeat Rival Hornets 8-1

Trankler improved 4-1
with a 2.58 era.

Things did not start out the way Thomas Trankler would have liked yesterday in
Oran's match up with their district foe and one of their biggest rivals, Advance.  But in the end it finished just fine for the senior and his Eagle team mates as they came away with a solid 8-1 victory and Trankler was named the Bank of Advance star of the game.

Trankler led off the game first pitch swinging and lifted a pop up into shallow right field.  Obviously disappointed in himself, he did not hustle down the first base line which drew the ire of head coach, Joe Bickings.

Then, in the bottom of the first, with Trankler on the mound, the Hornets lead-off man reached on an error, advanced to second on a wild pitch, to third on a passed ball and scored on an RBI ground out by the second batter.  Then, the next batter also reached on an error.  That was followed by a single.  After another wild pitch, Advance had runners at second and third with only one out.

The situation prompted a visit to the mound from Coach Bickings.

Heuring leaps to
snag a line drive
in the 4th.

Bickings had the magic words apparently, as it was smooth sailing the rest of the way.  Trankler induced the next batter to ground back to the mound.  Trankler looked the runner back to third and got the out at first.  The next batter struck out, the first of nine during the game.

The Eagles showed their dominance in the second as they sent nine to the plate and five crossed.  Drew Reischman led off with a double, went to third on Blake Overfield's one-out single.  Ben Heuring's walk loaded the bases.  Trankler then delivered the biggest blow of the game ripping a two-out double to right-center to clear the bases.  After Preston Hahn walked, Jacob Priggel drilled a two-base into right-center to push Trankler and Hahn around and Oran led 5-1.

That's the way it remained until the sixth inning when Clay Sauceda was hit by pitch leading off.  A perfect sacrifice bunt by Overfield moved courtesy runner Cole Priggel to second.  Heuring then worked his second walk of the game.  A McVay single loaded the bases with one out.  Trankler singled to pick up his fourth RBI.  Jacob Priggel picked up his third RBI when he wrangled a bases-loaded walk.  A booted ground ball hit by Hunter Schlosser allowed the final run to score.

Trankler improved his record to 4-1 as he pitched a compete game two-hitter, he allowed only one run and it was not earned.  He struck out nine and walked only one.  He was 3-4 at the plate with four RBIs.  Jacob Priggel added three RBIs

Oran (11-3) will be back in action on Monday as they travel to East Prairie to take on their foes at 4:30 pm.