Baseball Falls on the Road

Drew Reischman slides into 3rd base during yesterday' game

The Oran High School baseball team suffered its first defeat yesterday at the hands of the defending Class 1 State Champions Bell City Cubs 5-4 in 8 innings.

The Eagles jumped out on top by scoring 4 runs in the first inning.

Cole Priggel singled, then with Priggel running Preston Hahn singled through the vacated short stop position.  Priggel ended up at third and Hahn advanced to second on the throw.  Priggel crossed the plate following a wild pitch and then Drew Reischman singled up the middle drive in Hahn.  Clay Sauceda doubled to move Reischman to third.  With two outs, Layne Johnson doubled to right center to drive in both base runners.  Oran then had runners on first and third following an infield error. Denver Elfrink was at the plate when an ominous cloud produced lightning and a 43 minute weather delay.

After that, the Bell City starter Cole Nichols was virtually unhittable.

Layne Johnson connects for a 2RBI double.

Elfrink completed his at bat with a base on balls to load the bases but a called third strike ended the inning.

The Eagles only managed 1 more hit and 2 walks through the next four inning that Nichols worked. In fact they only put 2 other balls in play as he struck out 10 batters in those innings plus 2 he recorded in the first.

Layne Johnson worked around a two-out bases-loaded situation in the first and a two-out walk in the second.

He appeared to be cruising in the third after he retired the first two, but 3 straight singles allowed the Cubs to plate their first run cutting Oran's lead to 4-1 after 3.

In the fourth inning the Eagles had a mental lapse that cost them the lead.

Back-to-back one-out singles gave Bell City runners on first and second.  A well-hit ball to right center allowed the lead runner to score. The other runner scored on an error while the batter ended up circling the bases on a second error on the play and the score was tied 4-4 after four innings.

Both starting pitchers were gone after 5 innings.

Oran wasted a golden opportunity to regain the lead in the seventh as Reischman led off with a double and moved to third on a wild pitch with no one out.  But he was stranded there.

In the Cub half, Reischman (who had come on in the sixth in relief) worked his way out of a bases-loaded one-out jam to extend the game.

In the bottom of the eighth the Eagles were not as fortunate as Bell City was once again able to load the bases with only one out.  This time an infield ground ball allowed the winning run to score.

Reischman took the loss going the final 2 1/3 innngs giving up 1 run on 1 hit.  He walked 3, hit 2 and was charged with a wild pitch. Two of the walks were intentional.  He struck out 2.

At the plate, Reischman was 2-4, he scored once and drove in 1.  Johnson was 1-4 with 2 RBI.  Sauceda was 1-3.  All three had doubles.

Priggel and Hahn were both 1-4 with a run scored.

In Johnson's 5 innings of work, he allowed 9 hits, 4 runs, only 2 earned.  He walked 2 and struck out 4.

The Eagles will be back in action on Tuesday when they host Puxico at 4:30.