Eagles Open Season with "W"

Layne Johnson finishes a pitch in
the season opener

The Oran Eagles high school baseball team opened it's inaugural fall season with a 4-1 victory yesterday over the class 3 Senath-Hornersville Lions.

The Eagles got 6 strong innings from sophomore Layne Johnson and 2 hits and a RBI from fellow 10th-grader Drew Reischman enroute to the win.

Oran got on the board in the first inning with 3 unearned runs.  After 2 quick outs, Reischman hit a ground ball down the third-base line that got into shallow left field for a single.  Sophomore catcher Clay Sauceda followed with a walk and was replaced by freshman Jacob Shoemaker as a courtesy runner. Senior Tanner McVay hit a long fly ball to right-center that was dropped, allowing both runners to score.  Senior Blake Overfield then hit a sharp ground ball into the hole at short for an infield single.  McVay crossed the plate after the throw got away from the first baseman for the third run of the inning which was more than the Eagles would need.

Meanwhile, the lefty Johnson kept the Lions off balance at the plate with a big-breaking curve ball.

Tanner McVay approaches the plate

The sophomore went 6 strong innings allowing only 1 run on 5 hits.  He walked 2 and struck out 4. The battery of Johnson and Sauceda also caught 2 base runners attempting to steal and Johnson also picked off a runner at first.

Reischman tossed a 1-2-3 seventh inning to pick up the save.

Oran plated it's final run in the second.  Cole Priggel led of with a misplayed double, 1 out later Reischman plugged the gap in left center to trade places with Priggel.

The Eagles will be back in action Saturday, as they travel to Gideon for an 11am contest.  That will be followed at 1pm with a game against the Cooter Wildcats.