COLUMBIA – Richard Winn Head Coach Paul Brigman described his team’s 26-18 victory over the Northside Christian Crusaders on March 30 as “one of the strangest games I have been a part of. It was sort of two games in one. During the first four innings we could not catch the baseball and gave up 18 runs.The last three innings, we fixed it defensively and shut them out. Luckily our bats were consistent all night, and we were able to outscore them. Despite the inconsistency defensively, we were glad to get a win over a 2-A opponent.”
Rob Wilson’s 3-run homer in the top of the first put the Eagles up 3-0. A hit batter, four Eagle errors, and two singles produced three runs for the home team Crusaders to tie the game 3-3 going into the second inning.
The Eagles scored two runs in the second but left the bases loaded with the Crusaders coming up to bat. The Crusaders took advantage of two hit batters, a bunt sacrifice, an error, three walks, and two singles to score five runs and regain the lead, 8-5.
Ethan Steward singled in the third, and Miller Stuck followed with a 2-run home run. B. Baker got on base with a walk, and Jacob Chaisson doubled to score Baker. With the score tied at 8, Austin Lancaster singled to left field, and the following batters Wilson and Brian King drew walks to score Chaisson and go up 9-8. The inning ended with bases loaded.
Northside answered back with a big offensive inning to go up 14-9 at the bottom of the third.
A single by Stuck and back-to-back doubles by Baker and Chaisson boosted the Eagles score by three runs, but the Crusaders answered back with four more runs of their own in the fourth.
RWA trailed 12-18 going into the top of the fifth inning. Lawson Wade led off with a single to ignite the Eagle bats to score seven runs and re-take the lead, 19-18. Northside went down 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the inning.
The Eagles shut out the Crusaders in the final two innings but were able to tack on two runs in the sixth and five more in the seventh to capture the 26-18 victory and improve their overall record to 9-0-1.
Stuck got the starting nod on the mound and worked through 1.2 innings while facing 14 batters. King took the mound next, but Wilson came in shortly after to pitch the last 5.1 innings and get the win.
Tuesday’s region game against WW King had to be rescheduled due to weather conditions.
RW – 3-2-4-3-7-2-5 – 26, 26, 10
NC – 3-5-6-4-0-0-0 – 18, 15, 3
WP: Wilson. LP: Buice
Hitters: Baker 3-4, 2B, RBI(2); Chaisson 5-6, 2B(2), RBI(4); Lancaster 4-5, 3B, RBI(4); Wilson 2-6, HR, RBI(5); King 2-5, RBI(3); Caulder 1-6, RBI; Wade 3-7, RBI(2); Steward 2-6; Stuck 4-5, 2B, HR, RBI(4)